Line #109 YMMV/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney


1	* AntiClimaxBoss:
2	** In a rather inexplicable case of GameplayAndStorySegregation, the full-demon [[spoiler:Soil Jimenez]] fought on the Law route is actually far easier than the half-demon [[spoiler:"Awake" form]] fought on Neutral. The former form doesn't change his weakness and will only use his strongest attacks if you're dumb enough to let him buff to full, while you'll have no such luxury with the latter.
3	** The first {{superboss}} can be this if you know the trick. Unlike ''[[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne III]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV IV]]'', ''Strange Journey'' doesn't use the Press Turn system, meaning enemies, like you, can only take one action per round. This particular boss is programmed to always use Dekunda, the debuff-canceling move, if his stats ever drop below three debuffs, and if you bring two or more demons with Debilitate or Antichthon, you'll reach that point in two turns. Or, in other words, it's quite simple to cheese him into wasting every other turn. This strategy does cost a lot of MP however, and might not be sustainable without proper preparation.
4	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Detailed [[AwesomeMusic/ShinMegamiTensei here]].
5	* BaseBreakingCharacter: Alex has both her fans and people who deride her as a CreatorsPet and ''Redux'' in general as "Mary Sue Saves the World".
6	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The EX mission where you fight the god of toilets.
7	* BreatherBoss: Kanbari, [[OddJobGods guardian deity of the privy.]] Being weak to physical attacks, [[WeaksauceWeakness you can just spam basic attacks and get a Demon Co-op every time.]] He does sometimes cast Tetrakarn (which reflects one physical attack on the turn it's cast), but if you can outspeed him it just wastes his turn.
8	* BreatherLevel: After what you had to go through in Delphinus and Eridanus, Fornax is relatively simple and straight-forward. Of course, Grus follows after to pick up the slack...
9	* BrokenBase:
10	** Is this game a mainline title or a spinoff? Those who call it a spinoff refer to the lack of a number, the absence of Tokyo, and slightly different gameplay. Those who count it as the fourth main game claim that there are enough similarities with the main series for it to count, as well as the fact that this game was going to be a part of the numbered series until Atlus decided against it.
11	** Changing physical skills to cost MP instead of HP. Does it unfairly punish physical demons too much, thanks to them often having a focus on HP instead, or is it better because it stops the common strategy of loading up on physical demons with pierce?
12	** The new endings added in Redux. Are they a rare and refreshing hopeful interpretation of the alignments, or do they ruin the tone and themes of the game?
13	* CompleteMonster: The greedy [[OnlyInItForTheMoney Captain Jack]] proves that even in the demon world, [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters sometimes the worst monster is humanity]]. A PrivateMilitaryContractor loyal to nothing but his own pocketbook, Jack is hired by an unnamed client corporation to pillage the demon world of its natural resources, a job he takes a twisted pride in. Though initially appearing as an uneasy ally to the protagonists, it is eventually revealed that he plans to manufacture a demon army for his client and himself, regularly [[PlayingWithSyringes performing painful amputations on any demon unfortunate enough to fall into his clutches]] and fusing them together into unstable forms [[AndIMustScream that leave them in constant pain]]. When the protagonist's ally Jimenez tries to stop the experiments, Jack sends him to be tortured and fused with his demon friend Bugaboo to use him as a slave. When finally confronted by the protagonist and Jimenez, Jack's only action is to scold them for costing him valuable men and equipment before engaging them in a final battle.
14	* ContestedSequel: Interestingly, ''Redux'' is this to the original game. This is due to the two being practically opposites in terms of theming and how they handle their endings: the original is one of the most pro-Neutral games in the series, with its Law and Chaos endings being [[NightmareFuel horrifying even by their usual standards.]] The new endings in ''Redux'', by contrast, contain the most hopeful and positive takes on Law and Chaos in the series while considerably darkening Neutral. Both the original and new approach have their fans, and they rarely get along.
15	%%* CreepyCute: Bugaboo.
16	* CrossesTheLineTwice: There's something darkly hilarious about seeing [[BigEater Horkos]] with ''the entirety of the ''Elve'' in his belly''.
17	* DemonicSpiders: Enemy Search results may give a pushover UMA demon that yields forma that sells for a pretty penny, but from time to time you instead get surprisingly tough enemies.
18	** Any random encounter that sports a Mudo skill can become this, as an unlucky player can lose lots of exploration progress when a OneHitKill attack connects on [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou the protagonist]].[[note]]Hama isn't a concern as, unless the player uses certain armors, the protagonist is always immune to Expel.[[/note]] This gets mitigated when the player picks up the Rasetsu Vest from an early EX mission, which also grants them Curse immunity, but Mudo can become an issue again when the player changes to other armors.
19	** Take-Minakata serves as one the moment you get the Enemy Search Sub-App, being level 23 while the player is just over half that number, and having a lot of resistances that make him difficult to take down. His normal attacks will hurt like a truck, and Zan-ei can instantly kill anyone if it's currently a New Moon.
20	** Futotama sometimes spawns with a crowd of Mandrakes which are prone to inflicting Mute on your team with their normal attacks, on top of healing him or each other with Diarama. All the while, Futotama himself has no weaknesses, is immune to Expel, Curse, and petrification, and is level 42, a good dozen levels higher than the usual random encounters. He has the ever-loathed Macca Beam to empty your pockets, Strange Beam to vaporize your MP, and ''Diarahan'' to heal himself back up just when you think you've finished him off. If you try any buffs or debuffs, he'll invert them with Tables Turned. And when he's not annoying you with the above moves, his normal attack strikes the entire team.
21	** King Frost downplays this trope due to simply being really resilient by fully healing him and his cohort with Mediarahan. Unlike Futotama above, King Frost lacks Macca Beam and Strange Beam, and his weakness to Fire subjects him to many beatings from Co-Op attacks.
22	** Decarabia is a regular random encounter that's only weak to Gun, and comes with a couple of moves -- Tetrakarn to reflect the Gun attacks you're using to get Co-Ops off them, and Megido, which hits the whole party pretty hard. As an individual enemy, they're probably not too tough, as a single Megido is nothing an Amped Mediarama can't handle. The problem is when they spawn in groups of ''three to five'', putting your entire team at risk of death if they all decide to cast Megido at once. Fortunately, they're recruitable, so if you talk one into joining you, it pays off to keep it in stock as a guaranteed escape from a five-stack.
23	** Tao Tie nullifies Phys and Gun, preventing you from exploiting Rock Bullet to dispatch it quickly. When it starts swinging, it does this with one of two skills: Bomb Knuckle, which inflicts the [[ThatOneAttack infamous]] Bomb ailment, or Tyranny, which can spread fear across the entire party and interrupt your ability to deal with the bomb ailment. Your line of hope is that it's weak to a lot of forms of magic, but it also has a habit of getting some hits in before your team can exploit its weaknesses.
24	* DifficultySpike: Just about every new level ramps the difficulty up from the previous one by a huge margin, but once you enter Sector Eridanus, the gloves officially come off. For starters, Eridanus's individual floor maps are ''immense'', easily being at least twice as large as every sector that came before it, while having a large variety of map hazards to frustrate the player at every turn.
25	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
26	** Of all the new veteran demons for ''[[UpdatedRerelease Redux]]'', the inclusion of Maria from ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiNINE'' was the most well received, mostly because she retains her original design by Kaneko.
27	** Anthony, for being pretty much the most relatable NPC in ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' as a whole.[[labelnote:Note]]He's the guy who has fallen in love in with some demons.[[/labelnote]]
28	** Irving and Chen have a following for their hilarious [[MundaneMadeAwesome "power of science"]] sequences when creating new Forma for the player.
29	* FanNickname:
30	** Given similarities with ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', the protagonist has been named "SMT Doom Guy", "SMT Doom Marine", "SMT Doom Slayer", or "Japanese Doomguy" given his role as a SpaceMarine fighting demons from another realm. Another name given to him is [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Spess Mehren]]. The New Neutral ending in ''Redux'' makes this even more applicable, [[spoiler:when the protagonist becomes an immortal being to continuously wage war against the recurring Schwarzwelt.]]
31	** Music/LadyGaga for Zelenin[[spoiler:'s angel form.]]
32	** Jimenez sometimes gets called [[VideoGame/Persona3 Mexican Junpei]].
33	** After ''Redux'' revealed Alex, many fans ended up calling her "Space Yukiko", thanks to her long black hair and red clothings, which resembles Yukiko Amagi from ''VideoGame/Persona4''.
34	** From ''Redux'', [[spoiler:Shekinah is sometimes called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "female YHVH"]]]].
35	* FanPreferredCouple: There is a surprising amount of [[MinionShipping Mithras/Asura]] fanart, which comes in both het and slash variations since Asura has [[GenderBender an alternate female form]]. The two don't even interact onscreen, but are mentioned to be close friends and collaborators in [[MadScientist mad science]].
36	** Also Arthur/MC is gaining a surprising amount of popularity [[spoiler: thanks to ''Redux'''s New Neutral ending, which has them living together in the Moon- and the main character leaves Alex's ring near Arthur before leaving to wreck the Schwarzwelt again...]]
37	* FriendlyFandoms:
38	** With ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' fans given that both games involve a SpaceMarine being confronted with demons.
39	** Another small one exists with ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure'' fans given that Dio's voice actor Takehito Koyasu voices Arthur, Rohan's voice actor Takahiro Sakurai voices Jiminez, Kira's voice actor Toshiyuki Morikawa voices Mastema, ''and'' Old Joseph's voice actor Creator/UnshoIshizuka voices Gore in one of his last roles. Ironically "Strange Journey" is another way of writing "Bizarre Adventure". The fact that Mastema and Jiminez are on opposing sides the same way Kira and Rohan are enemies in ''Diamond is Unbreakable'' adds some fuel to the fire.
40	* GameBreaker:
41	** The password system lets you share demons with other players without the need for any network support, and while it has restrictions with Macca costs and needing the player to be at a high level to avoid DiscOneNuke usage, it can be exploited in a couple of ways. Fuse a demon, generate its password and jot it down, then revert to a previous save and use the password to get that fused demon without using up its fusion components and D-Sources. This method is great when customizing demons through repeated Mitama fusions. One can also look online for password generators that let them create any demon with any kind of skill set and stat spread they desire.
42	** There are several guns that come with Rock Bullet, a skill that can inflict petrification. This counts as instant death. Almost everything that isn't inherently immune to Gun, except bosses, are susceptible to this attack. Your Main Character gains 4x the EXP he would normally get if you have no demons out. Manshonyaga (an early game weapon that can cause Stone) will allow you to gain levels every 2-3 fights for a while.
43	*** The 4x EXP bonus can also be gotten by softening up an opponent with your demons, then giving them the return order and finishing the battle on your own. This makes it trivial to break the game in a [[LevelGrinding different way]].
44	** Victory Cry + Jihad/Antichthon (or any powerful Almighty-type spell) on a demon. The Eternal Rest spell in conjunction with any sleep spell is also effective, as status ailments work quite often on a surprising amount of enemies, and the combo can lead to a near DiscOneNuke if you get it early enough.
45	** While Jihad/Antichthon is commonly considered the ultimate skill, it isn't necessarily the most damaging. That falls to the ultra-rare skill Desperate Hit (only naturally on Demonee-ho, and can only be passed on via demon source), which does a random number of almighty hits. If it does 3 or more to a single enemy, that enemy takes more damage than it would from Antichthon. VERY useful against bosses. Not to mention it's only 40 mp.
46	** Grand Tack (Grand Piercer in ''Redux'') is abnormally strong. Costing just 10MP, it's a Gun skill that hits as hard as Zan-ei on a New Moon. Remember how hard [[DemonicSpiders Take-Minakata]] hits with that skill? You now get to use the same power without any conditions. You can unlock it as early as level 26, through a D-Source from Pabilsag. When you get to level 55, a D-Source from Kresnik unlocks Riot Gun, which is almost '''twice as strong as Grand Tack'''.
47	** It's possible to fuse Rangda so she reflects everything but Almighty and the two instant death elements. This means that almost any time an enemy casts a hit-all spell at your party, a chunk of it will bounce back and damage them. Gets even funnier if they target her with an ability that has a chance to cause a status effect, as it ''also'' bounces back; they can wind up inflicting Charm, Petrify, or even ''Instant Death'' on themselves.
48	*** Mad Gasser in ''Redux'' can do something similar, with him innately reflecting fire, ice, elec, and wind. Since you now only need to cover phys and gun, this leaves room for more skills to support the team.
49	** Double Down is a Sub-App that ensures that a demon will experience a skill mutation each time they level up. With enough luck you can mutate a superfluous skill into something even more useful, paving the way to a DiscOneNuke.
50	** ''Redux'' introduces Forneus, whose signature Death Bite deals "light" physical damage 4 times, unlike similar skills Megaton Press and Madness Crush that can hit anywhere between 1 and 4 times. It's easily one of the strongest and most consistent physical skills in the game, outdamaging single-hit "heavy" physical skills, while Megaton Press needs to roll 4 hits to match it, and Madness Crush needing 3-4 hits to beat it. He also has Charge and Acid Breath in his natural skill set to make him hit even harder. Impart Phys Boost and Phys Amp through D-Sources and watch Forneus tear up anything without physical resistance!
51	** Several accessories become available in NewGamePlus, but none stand out quite like the Solomon Ring. It grants the protagonist immunity to Expel and Curse on top of reflecting all other magic elements! Slap this on with the Armor Vest (which resists phys and gun, but has an elec weakness that's automatically covered by the ring), and the protagonist is now NighInvulnerable.
52	** ''Redux'' adds the Lucifer equipment set, all of which are exceptionally powerful but must be obtained by defeating the new {{Superboss}}es. Granted, [[PurposelyOverpowered they are worthy prizes for beating the toughest bosses the game has to offer.]] To note:
53	*** The Lucifer Sword, a single-target sword that pierces through any resistances to physical damage. This trivializes any enemy that resists, nulls, absorbs, or reflects physical.
54	*** The Lucifer Gun, a multi-target gun that has the obscenely-powerful [[CriticalHit Final Seven]] skill, which becomes great for triggering Co-Ops all the time.
55	*** The Lucifer Mail, a vest that gives Curse immunity and resistance to Fire, Ice, Elec, and Wind.
56	*** The Lucifer Ring, a ring that ''nulls all status ailments'' when equipped, even Rage (which normally cannot be protected against).
57	* GameplayDerailment:
58	** You're meant to carefully balance your dialogue choices to get the alignment you want, or answer them naturally and see which alignment the game puts you in. However, in the original DS version a repeatable event allows you to change your alignment to whatever you want with a little patience. The remake retains this event with all its alignment-shifting ability, but it has no effect once you've locked yourself onto one of the endings.
59	** The intent of the password system was for players to share the Demons they fused with their friends, or to get back Demons fused previously. Dataminers quickly reverse-engineered the password system to generate any Demon they wanted, such as [[GameBreaker Level 1 Demons that Repel everything.]]
60	* GeniusBonus: Mastema frequently makes a big deal out of the fact that the team's ships are made out of iron. This would seem to be a reference to one of the stranger verses in ''Literature/TheBible'', which depicts the Israelites, with all of God's power behind them, being unable to defeat an enemy armed with the then-latest technology, iron chariots.
61	* HarsherInHindsight: At the end of the Neutral route in the original release, Williams wonders if humanity will learn from the experience of the Schwarzwelt or not before deciding it's not really your problem. In ''Redux'', it's revealed [[spoiler:humanity learns nothing and is annihilated when the Schwarzwelt returns, leading Alex to travel back in time to ''make'' it your problem]].
62	* JerkassWoobie: [[spoiler:The Demiurge]] has some Woobie traits, being played very similarly to a mentally-disabled person. Though, [[spoiler:he used to be YHVH so you can't feel ''too'' sorry for him]].
63	* LesYay: After Zelenin [[spoiler:becomes an angel]], Dr. Zoe goes off on a tangent about how she would like to "examine" every inch of her.
64	* LoveToHate: Mastema, despite (or perhaps because of) his rather manipulative personality and outright HateSink nature, has ended up among the games' most popular demons, ranking in 4th place in Atlus' official popularity poll.
65	* MemeticMutation:
66	** Bugaboo [[FreudianSlip fascinates Jimenez's ass]].
67	** "[[CaptainObvious Earth is a planet.]]"[[labelnote:Explanation]]A line from the introductory movie. The full one is "Earth is a planet teeming with life," but the first half lingers onscreen for a while before the second appears below it, making it look like a statement unto itself.[[/labelnote]]
68	** "Doi can't draw cheekbones"[[labelnote:Explanation]]In the original game many characters had very prominent cheekbones, especially the main character and Zelenin. These are absent in the designs for the ''Redux'' re-release leading to the aforementioned callout, despite the fact that there were more artists than just Doi that did the redesigns.[[/labelnote]]
69	** M O M M Y.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Used on Website/FourChan to express attraction to the various curvaceous mother goddesses in the game, as well as [[spoiler:Zelenin's OneWingedAngel form]].[[/labelnote]]
70	** Maps of Sector Eridanus.[[labelnote:Explanation]]Sector Eridanus is one of the largest and most notoriously complex dungeons in the franchise, and jokes about the type of dungeons that are in SMT as a whole tend to be accompanied with a map of Eridanus's first or second floors.[[/labelnote]]
71	* MoralEventHorizon: See [[MoralEventHorizon/ShinMegamiTensei here]].
72	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
73	** "[Demon Name] became your demon."
74	** A successful Mudo or Hama going off on one of your enemies.
75	** The "splutch!" of an enemy being Charmed or Muted.
76	** "Unidentified forma successfully analyzed!"
77	** The rumbling when a boss demon is defeated.
78	** The blip from earning a D-Source. It's doubly satisfying if you're regaining that D-Source by leveling that demon up.
79	* {{Narm}}:
80	** The lack of an English dub causes American characters to pronounce things like Gore as [[FunetikAksent Goah]] or Red Sprite as [[FunetikAksent Redo Sprito]].
81	** The CruelTwistEnding of the ''Another Report'' manga is played completely for horror, but it's a bit hard to take seriously when [[spoiler:the demon spearheading the final massacre is a ''Decarabia'']].
82	* NightmareFuel: Some subtle, in that the game has no problem gutting optimism and human achievement in light of human atrocity. Some overt, in the hideous monster designs and grim plot twists. Some self-inflicted as you stumble around low on health and magic points looking for the next healing fountain. [[NightmareFuel/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney All detailed on this page]].
83	* NightmareRetardant: Pay close attention to the Ominous Chanting in the soundtrack, and you will quickly realize that it's ''not'' [[OminousLatinChanting Latin]]- it's nonsense language that resembles nothing so much as "hee-ho hee-ho hee-ho," [[MascotMook Jack Frost's]] VerbalTic.
84	* OlderThanTheyThink: Antichthon/Jihad, the game's ultimate spell, did not debut in this game. Demon Fury, a combo move in ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'', was a move in a previous game in the franchise that had the same effect, except it required specific moves and took up a whole turn.
85	* PlayerPunch:
86	** [[spoiler:Captain Gore]]'s death hits the crew, and probably the player, pretty hard. Later, [[spoiler:he is brought back to life and comes aboard your ship. If you don't answer his questions in a "Neutral" manner, or are far too gone into Law or Chaos, he personally fights you to the death. Afterwards, Arthur is critically damaged and shuts down and either Jimenez or Zelenin (depending on your alignment) comes to the ship and basically brainwashes everyone. And it's all your fault for not pursuing the path that is best for humanity.]]
87	** In the Law and Neutral paths, having to fight [[spoiler:Jimenez, who saw you as the only friend he had on the Red Sprite.]] In the Neutral route, it's at least mitigated by [[spoiler:Arthur comforting you after the battle--though it is what you have to do, he's aware of just how heartbreaking it is to have to kill a former comrade.]]
88	* ScrappyMechanic: Unlike other games in the series, the player's stat point allocation on level-up is random. You do answer a questionnaire at the beginning of the game to determine your initial stat spread, but the "build" only subtly influences the likelihood of a stat receiving points on level-up. For example, it's entirely possible for a Luck-focused build to have Agility be its highest stat, and this generally renders the whole questionnaire moot. You can correct this with the use of Incense, but they are rare to come by and can be costly to produce.
89	* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''[[VideoGame/SoulHackers Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers]]'' where the "apps" system comes from. Not to mention that many of the game's sprites for the demons come from the Devil Summoner games.
90	* {{Squick}}: The childlike design of Demeter earned a lot of uncomfortable reactions from players even remotely familiar with the original myth where she is a mother.
91	* TearJerker:
92	** Any situation where the appropriately-titled track [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzeA_9z6e9I "Sorrow"]] plays, such as [[spoiler:seeing the results of Jack's Squad's experiments]] in Jack's Squad HQ or [[spoiler:Arthur malfunctioning and self-terminating]] just after the PointOfNoReturn in the Law and Chaos routes.
93	** If you lock yourself into the Law or Chaos paths, [[spoiler:Arthur, the AI who has been assisting you and your comrades for the past eight sectors, suffers a critical bug in his personality matrix and shuts down for good.]] Just to twist the knife further, [[spoiler:the Red Sprite crew are then brainwashed to fit the alignment you've chosen--even if you were aiming for the Law or Chaos paths because you wanted to, you'll probably feel a sense of regret when you see the personalities of your crewmates overwrote with unquestioning worship of God or primitive savageness.]]
94	** Having to fight [[spoiler:Jimenez]] in the Law and Neutral paths, [[spoiler:who until alignment lock regarded you as his best friend on the Red Sprite. Turned into a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment\|s}} in the Neutral path, where Arthur acknowledges the PlayerPunch factor and grants you some words of comfort and encouragement.]]
95	** The fight with [[spoiler: Zelenin]] on Chaos and Neutral is also quite sad, but for a different reason: [[spoiler: unlike Jimenez, she doesn't even get to [[DyingAsYourself die as herself]], being subsumed too far into angelhood]].
96	** In the final Neutral path, [[spoiler:Commander Gore's return to the ''Red Sprite'', his kind words to his crew, and his [[DareToBeBadass plea to save mankind instead of siding with the angels or the demons]]. His crew's responses after he dies for good prove just how much they admired and appreciated him]].
97	** Alex in the Law+ route [[spoiler:begging Zelenin to acknowledge and accept the lives of herself and the others who will be "evil" enough to resist the effects of her song in the future, while describing how fighting for her life against the angels is a hell worse than the inside of the Schwarzwelt. Her desperation actually causes Zelenin to falter in her KnightTemplar ways.]]
98	* ThatOneAchievement: The mapping achievements. Since you have no way of manually drawing maps like in fellow Atlus series ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'', this means you have to walk on literally every tile of a given floor to get the achievement. Get used to those damage files, status effect tiles, and pitfalls! And that's ''without'' getting into Sectors Eridanus and Grus and their damned teleporter mazes. You ''can'' use Red Carpet on a NewGamePlus to remove the RandomEncounters, but it doesn't erase the sheer tedium of having to set foot on every last tile on each floor. ''Redux'' eases this with a new sub-app (available only in a NewGamePlus) that maps every square in your 3-tile scan raidus.
99	* ThatOneAttack:
100	** Anything that can cause the Stone ailment. Petrified demons/characters count as dead, since they cannot move and the effect does not wear off without external intervention. Unlike Expel and Curse skills, Stone cannot be prevented with Tetraja, Sacrifices, or revival accessories, and the best you've got is an accessory or passives that explicitly prevent it. Was the unlucky victim you? ''[[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou <your last name> fell...mission failed.]]''
101	** Bites the Dust (and other similar attacks later) inflicts the "Bomb" status ailment; it makes the afflicted physically fragile. If they get smacked around too many times, they explode, and do damage to all other party members equal to their own total health. Just one "Bomb"ed party member (including yourself, for an instant Game Over) can wind up blowing up your entire team. Your only protection against this is an accessory or passives that explicitly protect against Bomb, but using the Cohesion Ring also leaves you unprotected against other annoying things detailed below. Also, the Bomb ailment is [[UnusableEnemyEquipment exclusive to enemies]].
102	** Mithras's Mabufudyne. You didn't expect a third-tier party-wide attack spell to be used by the ''second dungeon''[='=]s boss, did you?
103	** A different sort of horrid attack: [[BanditMook Macca Beam]]. It'd be one thing if it stole a set amount of Macca, but it doesn't. It takes away ''one fifth'' of your current cash. If a Preta in the second dungeon hits your New Game+ party with it, you can lose six-digit amounts of money. Kangiten, found off high-end Enemy Searches, carries Wastrel Beam, which instead vaporizes ''half'' your money on-hand.
104	** Asura Roga inflicts Rage on your party, which increases their attack but also causes them to attack anyone at random. If it lands on the whole party, you'll be left a sitting duck watching all your teammates tear each other to shreds, or at least injure them enough for Asura himself to finish them off. There's also nothing that can defend against it except for the Command Skill Brave Heart, which you only get after beating Asura, and the Lucifer Ring, which you can only obtain in a NewGamePlus sidequest exclusive to Redux.
105	** Mother's Kiss turns the final boss for the Law and Neutral routes into a luck-based mission. Mother's Kiss is a 3-8 hit (random target) physical attack capable of total damage above 1000 on capped characters. You ''will'' need physical resistance for this fight to not die too easily to this, and the best armor that covers this also exposes you to the full brunt of her elemental attacks. The only way to render the protagonist immune to physical attacks is an accessory available in a NewGamePlus.
106	*** MA is 100% guaranteed instant death for whoever is targeted. In the original you basically have a 1 in 4 chance of getting a GameOver every time it's cast (in the UpdatedRerelease there's a subapp that prevents instant death from the MC being [=KOed=]). It also heals the boss, but that doesn't matter when you're DEAD. At level cap, if the RandomNumberGod is feeling merciful you can dodge it. You have one method of insurance against this attack: the Dragon Ring that gives the protagonist [[LastChanceHitPoint Endure]], but the sheer damage from the boss's attacks can expend this once-per-battle protection before you even see the first instance of MA.
107	*** Mem Aleph the attack will return all demons of a random alignment to your stock. This attack will ''cripple you'' if you have more than one demon that shares your alignment out as she can and more often than not will use her other attacks while you're trying to get your team out on the field.
108	** Pillar Zelenin's Requiem can do what MA does but to the whole party. It's not as accurate, but it can't be protected against, so you're praying that the RandomNumberGod will spare you.
109	** A set of {{Superboss}}es in ''Redux'', [[spoiler:the Wardens of the Womb of Grief]], all share a move called Overdrain. It's Energy Drain, but it's stronger and hits the entire party. While they're still affected by buffs and debuffs, they can bring this out immediately, and just one use of the move has the potential to turn what seems like a guaranteed victory to a near-hopeless situation. To add insult to injury, unlike Meditation and Soul Drain, Overdrain is not learnable by any of the [[spoiler:Wardens]] when you can fuse them.
110	** Several bosses in the Womb of Grief possess unique moves that apply a "field effect" that lasts for a few turns and cannot be cancelled. Among them is Sol Canus by Zeus, which purges buffs and debuffs on top of ''preventing them from being applied for 3 turns''. Considering how vital buffs and debuffs would be to a player's strategy, sealing off their bread and butter can cause the fight to go south real fast.
111	** If you finish the Womb of Grief in ''Redux'' but refuse to help Alex change the future, she empowers herself with the Cosmic Fruit and fights you. She only has one attack -- Claimh Solais -- which she uses incessantly in-battle. It's a physical attack that hits like a truck and ignores resistance, letting her easily kill you or your demons in one or two hits unless you spam buffs and debuffs. Meanwhile, her companion demons are throwing out buffs and debuffs of their own to counter your efforts, while you're also pretty much dedicating one party member to spamming healing items to offset her damage output.
112	** Another set of superbosses in ''Redux'', [[spoiler:Belial, Nebiros, Beelzebub, and Lucifuge,]] have two in particular. One, Calamity Cycle, is a buffed Disaster Cycle. The other is Doomsday, which goes back to the [=PS2=] spinoff method of superbosses one-shotting the party if you break one of their unspoken rules, some of which can be as major as "no debuffing."
113	*** [[spoiler: Nebiros and Beelzebub also have some unique moves that can and ''will'' ruin otherwise successful attempts against them. Nebiros, at below half health, will bust out Zero Mortality, which is Asura Roga with a ''100 percent success rate''. What makes it especially devious is that in addition to Rage making party members hit each other, Nebiros himself will instantly kill anyone who hits him with a physical or gun attack (making him pretty much an inverse Maya), so getting hit with this unprepared is pretty much a TotalPartyKill. Beelzebub, on the other hand, has Demonic Sigil, which is an HPToOne to the ''entire party'' and inflicts poison, in a game where poison damage ''can'' kill you. If he goes first and uses this and you didn't have a healing spell ready, kiss your party goodbye.]]
114	*** [[spoiler: Belial, meanwhile, is packing Dawn Chariot, effectively a super-Rampage that pierces resistances (and unlike most SMT games, pierce goes through repel in this one). He also has a maxed Strength stat of ''99'', and even an endgame party is unlikely to have enough Vitality to survive more than two hits of this attack without grinding for Incense]].
115	* ThatOneBoss:
116	** This being an Atlus game, there's quite a few of them, but the one that gets the most attention is Ouroboros, the final boss of the fifth block. Her first form isn't terribly hard, except for the fact that she heals about 160 damage per round, which is more damage than you can do to her unless you exploit her weakness to fire. Her attacks include Wild Thunder, a powerful group lightning spell, and Disaster Cycle, a spell that hits for moderate physical damage and inflicts random status ailments. That last one is really nasty because sometimes she gets ''really'' lucky with it and manages to either leave you with a dead weight party or petrify the main character (instant game over). Fortunately, your chances of seeing Disaster Cycle are slim. All this is just her ''first form'', however. Her second form no longer regenerates every turn, but now she uses Disaster Cycle almost every turn, and whenever she's not using Disaster Cycle, she's using Wave of Death which hits the whole party for nearly 300+ physical damage per hit! Her liberal use of Disaster Cycle almost makes the fight a LuckBasedMission. Ouroboros in both forms likes to spam Mahama, which luckily doesn't have a chance on you (unless you are wearing armor weak to light) but can kill any demon in your party that isn't completely immune. And she usually uses it often enough that the odds aren't bad that even a demon strong against light can get wiped out eventually.
117	** [[spoiler:Captain Jack]] also qualifies. Unlike many of the bosses in the game, he has no real gimmicks. Just absurdly high damage output and the ability to heal himself to full whenever he wants. The battle is basically a matter of doing as much damage to him as possible in a short amount of time. This only applies in the original NDS version; in ''Redux'', he doesn't do much other than attacking with his gun skills, making him a lot easier.
118	** Maya, the boss of Sector G also qualifies. For starters, if anyone on your team uses an Elemental- or Almighty-skill, [[OneHitKill they're dead]]. [[WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou No exceptions]]. She can safely be damaged with Phys. and Piercing skills, the latter of which she is weak against, but just hitting her can be a problem as she has a tendency to use Illusion Ritual, which doubles her agility. Oh, and she knows pretty much all of the single-hit -dyne spells, extremely powerful Gate spells which can one-shot anything vulnerable to their element, and [[Literature/AClockworkOrange Ultraviolence]], a hit-all attack that deals gobsmacking amounts of physical damage. Basically, if you don't have the ability to nullify her stat changes and/or have demons that block or repel Phys, you're not going to win.
119	** [[spoiler:Commander Gore]] on the Law & Chaos routes. His normal attack does 5 hits to one party member (enough to kill if you're not careful), and his abilities don't help either. Self-Denial heals him and boosts his attack. His other abilities do very high random-target phys or gun damage... and when he TurnsRed, he starts spamming Charge + Adaptation, which is fatal if you're not both strong to phys and guarding (and still can be even then). Not to mention that when he hits 0 hp the first time, he heals back up to full health. He's got 7500 HP, by the way. That puts his total (15000) as the ''highest in the game''. The only thing going for you is he's weak to wind, and if you were smart, you picked up something with Garudyne (differing by alignment) back in Grus, and maybe the Reaper Colt gun while you were at it. In ''Redux'' he gets a bit of a nerf: thanks to the new mechanics of support spells activating faster than offensive spells, spamming Tetrakarn is a viable tactic, as most of his heaviest attacks are Physical or Gun and his AI isn't smart enough to keep him from slamming into a reflective shield most of the time.
120	** [[spoiler:Mem Aleph]], the final boss of the Law and Neutral paths. When you reach her, you will probably be around level 75, where any of her attacks will kill you in two hits (three if you're guarding). She has extremely powerful spells of all elements as well as a particularly nasty physical attack that hits up to eight times (random target each hit) which is perfectly capable of killing a guarding protagonist at full health. She is also capable of cancelling all buffs and debuffs (healing about 600 HP in the process) and possesses the Disaster Cycle attack of Ouroboros, in addition to two separate 100% instant death moves...and this is just her first form. [[spoiler:Mem Aleph's]] second form [[ClippedWingAngel looks less threatening]] but [[OneWingedAngel it's even worse]], since she deals about twice the damage the first form did and gains the ridiculous MA attack, which instantly kills a party member and absorbs their HP without fail.
121	** [[spoiler:Pillar Zelenin]], the FinalBoss of the Chaos path. You thought [[spoiler:Mem Aleph's]] OneHitKill move was bad? Try a OneHitKill that hits ''the entire party''. It is literally a LuckBasedMission where you and your demons pile onto the boss, doing as much damage as possible while praying that [[spoiler:Zelenin]] doesn't bust out Requiem.
122	** ''Redux'' adds a new dungeon, the Womb of Grief, and with it, a few new headaches that will ensure you ''need'' everything the bonus content offers.
123	*** Ishtar, the boss of the Second Sphere of the Womb of Grief. She opens up using Berserker God and Garudyne, the third-tier single target Physical and Wind moves, at a point where you'll only consistently have access to second tier. She uses Silent Prayer to nullify your stat boosts if you reach +3, and when that's the move you want to see, you know you're in deep trouble. When she gets low on health, she starts adding Magarudyne to the mix, which does Garudyne level damage to your whole party. She also has Daunting Maul, a physical attack that hits your party and lowers their attack by one stage. The most brutal move in her arsenal, however, is her Alluring Squall/Soul Steal combo. Alluring Squall does 1-3 hits of Wind damage and charms whoever it hits. Soul Steal deals a OneHitKill to anyone who is charmed and heals Ishtar by the amount of damage it deals. You have our express permission to weep TearsOfFear.
124	*** Zeus, the boss of the Fifth Sphere. He has Keraunos (Electric damage and ''four Rakundas'' to one target), Adamant Sickle (Physical damage to one target and two Tarukajas to himself), and enough raw power to put you down in one shot. Bring Luster Candy, War Cry, and the Reaper Colt (which gives you Storm Shot, a heavy Wind attack that hits his weak spot) or die horribly. He can also choose to be completely obnoxious by using Sol Canus, which ''actively prevents buffing and debuffing for a few turns''.
125	*** The TrueFinalBoss in ''Redux'' can easily make the original FinalBoss look like a walk in the park. While it lacks instakill cheapness (on top of the aversion of WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou so that the fight isn't terminated by the protagonist dropping dead), it makes up for it by being a long MarathonBoss. You have to beat through a total of about '''24,000 HP''', and for the latter half of the fight, it gains resistance to everything, including Almighty, with your one solace being Co-Op attacks which do boatloads of damage to compensate. This also means that your almighty-spam team that would [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome trivialize nearly everything else in the game]] becomes much less effective and you actually need to go back to exploiting elemental weaknesses to get anywhere with the boss. The boss also regularly [[BarrierChangeBoss shifts its weaknesses]] to mirror those of previous bosses (and even use ''their'' signature skills), but its base form has no weaknesses and will throw up a long-lasting barrier that reflects all attacks from combatants of a specific alignment, so you will need to prepare a roster of demons from multiple alignments with multiple elemental skills to keep fighting while the barrier's up.
126	* ThatOneLevel:
127	** Sector Eridanus is ''enormous'' and befits its status as the DiscOneFinalDungeon. While the game does segment it with plot-mandated barriers and shortcuts so that you don't have to deal with all of it at once, it will contain every kind of obstacle that you've faced in the sectors before. You have damage, poison, and sleep tiles, one-way doors to force backtracking, teleporter and conveyor mazes, and one place with enough pitfalls to make the level look like swiss cheese. Whenever anyone criticizes the dungeon design of ''Strange Journey'', expect them to bring up the Eridanus map and point out everything you deal with while traversing the place.
128	** Sector Grus mixes a one-way-door maze on one floor with a teleporter and conveyor maze on the other. There are no shortcuts midway until you pick up Unlock C, which is positioned at the ''end'' of the Sector. If you needed to return to base to restock midway, well, hope you remembered the way forward.
129	** When you access eastern Grus, available on a NewGamePlus, you find similar mechanics that you've faced in the rest of the Sector -- teleporters, pitfalls, and one-way doors out the wazoo. It's a lot more unforgiving, as several parts of the one-way door maze force you into one of its four corners, which sets you back a long way and needs an absurd amount of backtracking to pick up where you left off. Also, if you want to pick up all the treasure it has to offer, you've got two Sanctums to navigate in the one-way door maze, which force you into one of the severe-backtracking corners. The Guidance Angel and Omen Bug Sub-Apps of ''Redux'' make this barely tolerable; the original game doesn't have those luxuries.
130	*** Let's face it, the developers love torturing us. They haven't had a chance to make a ridiculously complex dungeon since ''Nocturne''.
131	** Floor 5 of Delphinus is a massive maze of conveyor belts that you need the Visualizer to see; in other words, it requires a Rare Forma that can be easily missed and/or ignored, ''and'' the conveyors don't show up on your map even with the Visualizer in the original without a lategame New Game Plus sub-app. It's almost a GuideDangIt to figure out how to get to the upper floors.
132	** The Second Sphere of the Womb of Grief in ''Redux'' marks a significant DifficultySpike in the dungeon. The previous two floors were not too tough -- while the numerous currents carrying the player around in circles into teleport squares could get tedious, they were at least bearable. Past a certain point in the Second Sphere, the player is forced to traverse an ''enormous'' swath of damage tiles leading up to a series of pitfalls. Only one of them provides the way forward, and the rest lead the player back to the start of this torturous section. Even with the Nurse Sub-App to mitigate the damage tiles, the whole journey is certain to be draining on the player's healing sources. Enemy Search encounters can also include the infuriating [[DemonicSpiders Futotama]], and the boss at the end is Ishtar, [[ThatOneBoss who is her own league of frustrating]].
133	** In as much as a story branch can be one of these, the New Chaos path in ''Redux'', as it's the PathOfMostResistance. You still fight the original Chaos final boss, but you also have to turn around and double-cross the original Law/Neutral final boss, and then fight the TrueFinalBoss. Each of them are infamous enough to be ThatOneBoss individually.
134	* ThatOneSidequest:
135	** Some EX missions involve battling against bosses with a stat restriction on your team. For instance, Kazfiel's request needs you to fight with demons whose total Magic is 60 or lower. Depending on how far you are in the game, you may be forced to fight at less than a full team, though on a New Game Plus, you can access strong enough equipment to go solo.
136	*** Kazfiel and Aniel later challenge you to beat them both while your team's average level is 45 or lower. Considering that you've exceeded level 55 by the time you can access this EX mission, this means you'll need to be fighting them with a team full of weak demons. You can't even cheese the restrictions by fighting solo.
137	** All of Demonee-Ho's requests except for the last one share two restrictions: no changing your demons mid-battle and no item use. They are also difficult for varying reasons.
138	*** Demonee-Ho's first request: Defeat a tough set of three slimes without demons that have healing spells. These slimes have Megido, Makarakarn, and if the battle takes too long they will self-destruct to kill you.
139	*** Demonee-Ho's second request: Kill Ares while using demons that have 15 or less Vitality. This means that unless your Main Character is over-leveled, nobody on your team will be able to tank more than one hit before dying and Ares will counterattack if you use physical or gun attacks.
140	*** Demonee-Ho's third request: Beat a specialized Thoth and Seiten Taisei within three turns, while you and each member of your team are reduced to 10 MP. It's possible that the outcome of the battle will be decided on when Trigger Happy activates.
141	*** Demonee-Ho's fifth request has you fight Azrael with demons whose total Magic is 70 or lower. Not too bad, until you realize that Azrael ''fully heals himself'' at the end of each turn, which may force you to re-summon and re-fuse a team of demons specifically to beat him.
142	*** Demonee-Ho's sixth request: Defeat Demonee-Ho and two Fake Demonica demons while your team's total level is less than 180. The two Demonica demons will deal damage and debuff you and if you kill them, Demonee-Ho will resummon them. Demonee-Ho himself also hits like a truck with his Breath and Desperate Hit attacks.
143	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
144	** The art team reworking the art for ''Redux'' was met with mixed to extremely negative reception from series fans with many thinking that the new art looks very OffModel.
145	** Likewise, the absence of an English voice track in a franchise that has typically favored them, especially considering the game's multinational cast of characters, was very poorly received.
146	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: The fusion of [[spoiler:Metatron and Demiurge]] on NewGamePlus to effectively recreate [[spoiler:God/YHVH]] doesn't impact any of the endings, old and new alike. This is especially awkward on New Law where [[spoiler:Zelenin talks about creating a lawful world without God, despite him being present if you fuse him]], leaving the impression that he's just awkwardly watching people go on about him as if he wasn't ''right there''.
147	%%* UglyCute: Several demons.
148	* UnexpectedCharacter:
149	** Among the Fiends, we have the Revelation Fiends, and of course [[EnsembleDarkhorse Matador and Alice]]. However, we also have David, who only showed up as an obscure 1/256 chance boss fight in ''Shin Megami Tensei I'' and unlike most demons in the SMT repertoire, had only [[VideoGame/DevilSummoner appeared once]] since then until ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse''.
150	** One of the demons featured in ''[[VideoGameRemake Strange Journey Redux]]'' is Maria, who until this point only appeared as a major character in the obscure game ''Shin Megami Tensei NINE''.
151	* TheWoobie:
152	** Zelenin. Unlike Jiminez who jumped into the Chaos path with both feet, Zelenin's transition to the Law side was a result of [[spoiler: Mastema]] manipulating her and preying on her past trauma of being captured and experimented on by demons.
153	** Bugaboo is another victim of Mithras' experiments who was further experimented on by Jack's Squad and nearly killed, only being saved by fusing with Jiminez.
154	* {{Woolseyism}}:
155	** Shifting the protagonist's nationality from Japanese to American in the North American version makes a lot of sense when you consider that [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks the United States military]] is well-known for being one of the largest and highest-spending military forces in the world. Contrast [[UsefulNotes/KaijuDefenseForce the Japanese armed forces]], which deliberately keeps its scope mostly limited to national self-defense and declines to refer to itself as a proper military. Aside from all this, it also adds a touch of closeness to the relationship between the protagonist and Jimenez, who is also American, especially if you [[spoiler:side with him and pursue the Chaos route]], and can potentially deepen his enmity with [[spoiler:Zelenin if he goes Law, due to [[UsefulNotes/TheColdWar historical tensions between the United States and Russia]]]].
156	** A plot-important NPC who was only recognized as "Strange Girl" in the original Japanese version received the name "[[LouisCypher Louisa Ferre]]".

Context YMMV / ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney