All Comments

I look forward to seeing what you do with the liveblog. How many endings will you be covering?

I'm going to be doing all of them, though I'm debating how at the moment (do I play through the whole thing multiple times to reap New Game+ benefits, or make one save at the decision point and do them separately?) because once you fashion your uber New Game+ demons the game becomes a cakewalk outside of you-know-who.

So, Devil Survivor is next, huh? Interesting...

Speaking of interesting, in the DS version the line "Peaceful Days Died" is "Peaceful Days Are Over". It, and many other lines, got re-translated for Overclocked, although this may not always be a good thing (I prefer the "Are Over" version of that line over "Died", for example).

Devil Survivor, eh? This'll be fun. The main thing I'm wondering about is if you'll do the second game as well. That is, if you have it.

Of course I'm going to do the second game! The only problem is I was hoping that Break Record was either released by now or had a release date set so I could maintain parity with Overclocked but at this rate it looks like I'll have to do the DS game first and then go on hiatus until Break Record eventually drops.

Hmm. OK then ^.^

Here's something worth noting: the game over sequence is the COMP's error readout, stating that "Mind link [from user] to COMP disconnected". Which has some interesting implications.

@Mysterion: The Mind Link in question is likely for the Harmonizer and various Skill functionality, and maybe for the Death Clock display, as well.

Overall, nothing too ominous, unless there's some late game revelation I don't know about...

No, I mean it implies that the main character is easily shaken by the deaths of innocents.

Maybe, but freaking out over the whole situation is actually Yuzu's thing. Given how the endings can go, the MC's personality is... Well, as set in stone as any other SMT MC's.

Victory jingle not on the soundtrack? Dafuq?

I really like how you're including information on the various demons. It will make a very interesting read, I'm sure.

Ah, Kaido, Keisuke, Haru, and Gin. The game wastes no time in introducing characters. I'd like to share my thoughts on them once we see more about them.

"Ha VE a nICE daY."? Someone really needs to check the programming of whatever sends the Laplace Mails, it seems to be bugging out. And it's not like that's foreshadowing at all, or proof that the butterfly effect is already starting to kick in and screw the prediction algorithms over...

Remind me, has the Skill Crack system been introduced yet? Or does that happen later still?

Also, on the Devil Auction bidders, although the first three tiers are made up exclusively of Soul Hackers characters (both good and bad), the fourth and final tier is made up of a pair of Soul Hackers villains, the name of the recurring Devil Summoner family (Kuzunoha), "Hero" (likely the player character from Soul Hackers), and finally, the pair who break the pattern, Nakajima and Yumiko. Those last two are not from Soul Hackers, instead, they are the male and female leads from the Digital Devil Story novels, and by extension, the very first Megami Tensei game for the Famicom.

Cracking will be introduced in the next installment.

I'm pretty sure that there are plenty of dumb slasher movies with a snowman as the villain...though the one you're thinking of is probably the one where a snowman rapes a woman with his carrot nose.

Hoo boy. Shit be gettin' real now!

Just like Atlus to hand you the Cathedral of Shadows right after you defeat a boss who's about level 20.

Since it had been a while since I'd played the game for a moment I was worried that they wouldn't introduce Skill Cracking until afterward too.

Fusions are available now, woot~ 8D

Well, as to gods and demons being the same, as far as a Demon Summoning Program is concerned, they are the same. This is a long established SMT fact; heck, even the tubes used by Raidou treat gods no differently than demons.

Also, I find I funny you named the blog "My Way or Yahweh" when this is one of the games where He isn't a, pardon my French, asshole. (But yes, I do get the intended joke; still find it funny.)

Finally (insert "one more thing!" here), my favorite De Su character has shown up! It's Midori, although most of the reasoning behind her being my favorite is because she's the primary viewpoint character for Seven Days Survivor, a crossover fic where she gets sent to Tatsumi Port Island after her school got wrecked in the lockdown, just in time to get involved with September's Full Moon Shadow. With The Answer (and book two) done, the author plans for a peaceful book three before sending Dolly to Inaba for book four and the events of Persona 4.

I happen to like Midori too. She's less of a downer than Yuzu, at least.

And Amane and the Shomonkai get some screentime. I wonder what exactly Naoya was hoping our encounter with her would lead to...

Knowing Naoya? There are multiple possibilities, and not all of them are good... Or bad, for that matter.

Is this your first playthrough? I have no idea if any of the secret bosses are available on the first playthrough, but I'd love to see you cover their fights.

This is a first run, yeah, and the bonus bosses aren't available until New Game+. I'll probably throw all of them (save for the last one) into a single update when I reach that point.

Yeah, they would save the bonus bosses for New Game+.

Two days in and the Laplace Mail is already this degraded. Trust me, it gets even worse as the days go on.

Other than that obvious detail, nothing too unusual for SMT so far, although there is some foreshadowing of future events here, if you know what to look for. This... is not a good thing, especially as this is a SMT game.

And here we have Mari, Shoji, Honda, and the military forces.

Mari makes a good first impression here with her reasonable perspective and her connection to Atsuro.

In my opinion, Shoji is one of the more genuinely moral people in the lockdown and if she had her own ending route I'd probably follow it.

I admit, I ended up ignoring Honda most of the time when I played, but there are a few moments that stand out.

As for the military... they have their moments, but from what I've seen the authors did a better job with their kind in the sequel rather than here.

Hee-ho! ^_^

The Compendium was definitely one of the best things they added to Overclocked. Not only is it a lot of fun to read up on the many demons, but customization becomes a hell of a lot easier as well.

I happen to like Mari and Kaido's interactions. They show Mari is tougher than she initially appears, and that Kaido does have things he cares about.

Meanwhile, Keisuke and Midori start to be more proactive. Though I think it's too bad we don't see Midori's attempt at a contract. You would think having something out for her blood specifically would sober her up a bit.

Speaking of which, it's probably better to get them started early, considering that the starter demon will either be in single-digit levels, or on par with the wild ones - either way means that it should logically get harder and harder to survive your first few battles as a demon tamer as time goes on. It's actually the second way around.

Jack bros ftw, hee-ho! 8D

Ah, Izuna... while I can understand her perspective, this scene cemented her and the SDF as a full antagonist, who I'd have no regrets about fighting my way through. As for Izuna herself, my main problem with her is that while she can speak reasonably and shows some sympathy for the civilians' plight, she hasn't had any sympathetic actions.

As a party member, I like Keisuke. His own low power can be made up for with strong demons, and he Always moves first. I'm pretty sure that joining levels are set.

Kaido's disrespect of the hero's friends is his first onscreen Kick the Dog moment, as I recall.

Mysterion, historically, the military is at best useless in SMT games, but is more likely to be a hinderance if not outright antagonistic. The MAJOR exceptions to this rule are the two Raidou Kuzunoha games (and even in the first, it was the helpful Army vs the antagonistic Navy, and in the second, all they could really do is give you some side quests and buy you time when things go to hell at the end), select ending paths in De Su, and maybe De Su 2 (of which my knowledge is practically non-existent).

The SDF makes like one notable appearance in Devil Survivor 2, where they're about as effective as they are in a Godzilla movie (ie: not very). JP's is a bit more, well, complicated as far as general helpfulness goes and I'll leave it at that for now. It's one of the main conflicts of the game.

Yuzu didn't help, but Kaido being a sore loser here was where I first started to actively dislike him.

Some minor hinting at future plot points, story? Worse, you're trying to mislead us about some of those plot points...

Eh, this is SMT; if there's not at least one false lead, red herring, or similar per game, then the writers decided to be nice to us.

Kaido was lucky this wasn't one of the main games; his crying for more power would've been a cue for some demon to forcibly fuse with him or something like that.

You don't need Hero's Aid to remove Beldr's extra turns, Devil's Fuge is super effective anyway.

Of course. It's an SMT game, often it's only a matter of time before an angel makes it's presence known in the story. This is usually followed shortly thereafter by the angel making it's wishes and goals known. This is usually only a good thing if you follow the path of Law.

Angels are rarely good news in a Shin Megami Tensei game, since you have to sit through their talks about how humanity is irredeemable unless they embrace robotic obedience to God and become mindless drones singing hosannas for eternity. It's almost as annoying as having to listen to the White.

Thankfully, there are always the exceptions...

HEAR MY WORDS, EVILDOERS! IF THOU DOST WISH TO CHALLENGE THE ODINSSON, THOU WILL FACE THE DIVINE POWER OF MIGHTY MJOLNIR! NEVER SHALL THE GOD OF THUNDER RELENT!

^ Says the Level 16 Deity weak against Mystic attacks.

I look forward to the next update, as always.

Yeah, Thor's kind of useless in this game sadly since he barely has any MP yet learns an MP-intensive spell (Elec Dance) and no Physical skills.

Now might be a good time to start giving interpretations of the main character.

When I played, I imagined him as a man of action whose goals revolve around protecting others, while respecting others who were willing to take an active hand in events*. His goal is to ensure as many survivors as possible, though being human, he focuses on his friends first.

And because he values his friends so highly, his thoughts on Kaido take a major hit whenever the thug insults Atsuro or Yuzu. While he understands self-defense as a motive in this instance, at this point he's decided that he will never count Kaido as an ally*.

• This being the only problem he has with Gin.
• However, that doesn't mean he won't listen to what Kaido has to say while letting the thug think what he will. He has picked up a few things from Naoya... And if our hero's can't be everywhere at once a Pawn may be useful.

No matter how you slice it, this is at or past the halfway point for the game. Makes you realize just how short this game really is once you take out the grinding aspects, although I understand that the story scenes really ramp up in frequency and length on the final day.

Even at his worst, I found Keisuke a more sympathetic character than Kaido. And not just because Keisuke is our first #4 character. He still limits his wrath to those he and Yama see as guilty, and if you pay attention, undercurrents of regret can be seen in his words. He's well aware that he might end up "guilty" by Yama's judgement. His two errors are using lethal force when the main cast is reluctant to, and trusting the judgement of a demon.

In contrast, Kaido also uses lethal force on anyone who gets in his way, and is a bit too quick to jump to death threats. His main desire is to have power without the accompanying responsibility - he dislikes needing to do things to protect his underlings, and likes demons because they don't have any baggage. Protecting Mari was his sole redeeming moment, and we had to plant the idea in his head far ahead of time.

I find it interesting how Keisuke and Kaido embody many of the usual Law Hero and Chaos Hero attributes and beliefs, yet are not actually the game's Law and Chaos representatives.

...Kaido really does fit the role of the original Chaos Hero, it's just that this game's other representative is on a whole other level.

This is... The end of day 5, right? So far as I can tell, you haven't screwed up and locked yourself out of any endings yet, correct?

Right. I'm actually a little further ahead, at the decision point on Day 6, and I made sure to unlock all of the ending paths for the sake of the blog.

I actually missed out on Atsuro's path in my run. I'm not sure why, but I probably missed the last conversation that finalized it as an option.

You know, I have a theory that this group of demons were Beldr's followers who've been trying to lie low since they lost the war.

Interesting tidbit: There is actually a second Laplace Mail for Day 6. It's far less error-riden than the one seen above, and doesn't mention the system shutting down, but as the only way to see it in-game is for Haru to die during Day 5...

So, can I safely expect to hear about the Early Bad End next time?

Uh, no, staying neutral and making the skirmish at the border a Melee-A-Quad does not lock out Amane's path.

Oh is that so? I coulda sworn it was like that on a previous playthrough - guess I was just mistaken.

Encountering Sariel, and seeing Powers slaughtering civilians over a test which has deliberately been kept secret from the general population is the point where my MC decided that he doesn't want to be on the side of the angels. Remiel is nice enough, but is he worth putting up with the others?

Meanwhile, Naoya is outright evil in his own way, so their familial ties are the only reason why MC hasn't picked a fight with him yet. And Kaido has served his purpose for now, so there's no further reason to associate with him.

Siding with Gin is the obvious choice at this point. Programming in the Dispel function will probably be harder than just taking the throne, but he's the most sensible of our potential allies.

Atsuro's idea... we'll get to that later...

Alright, let's look over the options...

Let's start with Gin.

Gin's route involves allying with Gin and Haru to return the world to normal.

Allies:

• Gin and Haru
• Japanese armed forces and government (by default)

Advantages: While the Gigilo considers this a cop-out because it means giving up the opportunity to change the world, I disagree - the goal here is to balance your own morality with creating the best outcome possible:

• Things were fine before the demons started spilling out onto Earth. It doesn't need changing.
• Gin is one of the most genuinely moral people in the supporting cast.

Disadvantages: (Aside from the "putting the world in danger in the meantime which all endings share)

• The angels aren't punished.
• The government isn't punished.
• Naoya might slip away and escape punishment.

Atsuro next:

Atsuro's route is to coerce Naoya into hacking the Summoning Server and forcing demons to serve humanity. He's willing to give up control to the government.

Allies:

• Japanese armed Forces
• Naoya (Sort of)

Advantages:

• Humanity gains control of powerful forces - both Demons and comp-based magic. This is a huge gain.

Disadvantages:

• Demons might be the enemies of mankind, but do we really want to make the subjugation of an intelligent race into a keystone of society? Haven't we moved beyond that?
• The angels aren't punished.
• The government isn't punished - in fact they win completely.

Naoya next.

His route is to seize the mantle of Bel and become the King of the demons. After which, we can do whatever we want, he claims.

Allies:

• Naoya
• Kaido, who Naoya has already recruited. This is why their routes are the same.

Advantages:

• Power...Unlimited Power!!!
• Punish the angels for their hypocrisy!

Disadvantages:

• There's no way Midori and Keisuke are gonna go for this... Make this choice and the party will part ways.
• Naoya and Kaido are Poisonous Friends and are bound to provoke fights where the MC could have resolved things peacefully.
• No matter what justifications the MC uses on himself, or how genuinely well-intentioned he is, Yaweh won't be convinced.

Equal and opposite, we have Amane.

Like Naoya, this involves becoming the demon king through the brute force method. The differences are that we will have the angels' backing and the additional step of pledging allegiance to God.

Sounds like a good deal, If we had skipped or overlooked the encounters with Sariel and Honda's battle at the barricade. But now we know that most of the angels aren't as nice as Remiel. While they think they can take their own virtue for granted, they haven't done anything good by modern standards.

On the other hand, Naoya seems to take his own opinion of the angels for granted as well. He assumes that people will agree with him about their bastardry without waiting for them to show their true colors first.

Even so, God himself hasn't done anything to warrant suspicion right now... Ultimately, the choice between Law and Chaos is which side to forgive.

Okay, back on track.

Allies:

• The angels
• The Japanese Government (By default)

Advantages:

• Power and respect.
• End the war between Yaweh and Bel once and for all.

Disadvantages:

• Do we really want the Angels on our side...? They're one of the three factions who started the lockdown, after all. They convinced the government to set up the barricades and allowed innocents to die in ignorance.

Finally, the route we all knew existed:

Yuzu: Desperate Escape

Angels... Government... They betrayed us, the people who trusted them! They made themselves the enemy a week ago! Why the hell should we do anything for them now?!

Fighting those butchers is not evil. They deserve it now.

(Okay, Yuzu's goal is to break free and escape and would balk at killing soldiers. But let's be honest, the real reason to pick this path when there are alternatives is for the chance to fight Sariel and Izuna.)

Allies:

• ...Perhaps none. But do we need any?

Advantages:

• Punish the SDF.
• Punish the angels.
• Screw the War of Bel.

Disadvantages:

• What about the Final Option? How do we stop that?
• What about God's thunder? And the huge army of angels he has waiting in the wings?

Given that I tend to believe that humanity should be ruled by humans, I can safely rule out three of five endings.

I may trust God in this one (rather weird for SMT), but the rest of Heaven? Yeah, not so much. Plus, I think the whole Law vs Chaos thing is stupid. So Ayame's route is out. Naoya's route is basically the same thing as the True Demon Ending from Nocturne, so that's out. Atsuro's route... SMT has demonstrated that any large scale use of demons by humans leads to bad stuff happening, so yet again, that's out.

So, we're left with the two "neutral" options, so which to choose? Well, Yuzu's route is basically saying "screw this, I'm going home". Sounds good, until you realize that you are giving up and running away, and that the only person with the ability to make things better is the MC. In other words, you just screwed over the world because you didn't want to take a stand. Say what you will about the White ending from SMT 4, at least there you took a stand and fought for it. So yeah, not doing this one.

That leaves, by process of elimation, Gin and Haru's route, which is rather similar to Nocturne's Remake The World ending. And while the world may have been screwed up before the Lockdown, at least it wasn't supernaturally screwed up. This one... I actually can choose.

(Although, my preferred ending is the one where you travel back in time to save Aya and stop the Shomonkai's plans before they even start in the first place. Sadly, the only way that one will happen is via fanfic... Plus, given the truth about Naoya, it might be only a stopgap solution at best...)

I'm thinking of going with Amane's route for the first go-around. In addition to gameplay things like having good fusion rewards and being the one of the paths with an 8th Day to showcase, it's different from most normal Law paths in that it actually addresses the whole asshole angels thing and goes with an alternative.

Sometimes, you know your enemies better than you know your friends.

This is why I asked earlier why Naoya pointed us to Amane. He says that she'll be key to our fate, and yet never realizes that we might decide to ally with her instead of him?

I'm guessing that he was counting on her influencing the crew with the Shomonkai's anti-God rhetoric, and didn't expect her to actually come down on His side and reject her father's teachings.

"Personal issues". Well, that's certainly an interesting way of saying "I think the True Demon Ending is the best thing ever!" (This paragraph won't be important in the future at all. Nope, not one bit.)

...Have I previously made the point that I don't like where some of the endings lead? Because I don't like where some of the endings lead. Naoya's ending is one of them.

God (and assorted allies) vs (part of) the Japanese pantheon? Didn't I see that as a side plot in SMT 1 or 2? Then again, how often is the plot of an SMT game "Law and Chaos are fighting and humanity's caught in the middle; do something about it"?

And on a non-SMT related note: Mega Man Battle Network 1 is now out on Wii U Virtual Console, if Comic's playthrough got you interested. Also coming out for Wii U VC in August is the worst Battle Network game: Battle Chip Challenge! (Bet you thought I was going to say 4, didn't you?)

Okuninushi is on the one hand a different sort of opponent and character than usual, and on the other one of the problems with this extended sequence.

The problem being: Where the heck was he earlier, and why doesn't he show up on the other routes? We're meant to assume he was fine with Japan being taken over by demons, society breaking down, and a more malevolent king of Bel... but draws the line at Angels and Bel joining forces?

Well, let's go by this in order:

In Atsuro's ending, the angels' plans are shut down and the demons are under (Japanese) military control, so naturally he's happy. In Gin / Haru's route, the demons are just gone; again, no reason to be upset. In Naoya's route, you are gearing up to fight God; he might even join you for that. In Yuzu's route, the angels may be attempting to take over, but they don't really have the advantages they do here (namely, you and Ayame), so there is likely significant resistance. And we've seen how Ayame's route goes.

So yes, this is really the only route where he has reason to oppose you.

(BTW, I'm pretty sure that using demons for military purposes in Atsuro's ending violates something in either Japanese or International law. If it's on the Japanese side, it's likely going to be something related to Article 9. But even if it doesn't violate any laws, it likely won't win Japan any favors with other countries, especially if those countries tend towards the Abrahamic faiths.)

Okuninushi does mention having previously abdicated Japan to mankind, so I guess he's okay with whatever we decide to do ourselves and the consequences thereof...but once someone else (God) tries muscling in on the land and tries to actively take it over all bets are off.

Nice word choice at the end there. I'm also interpreting this as "the final boss awaits". Well, at least for this route and 8th Day...

I like how they show several interpretations of the same bible stories. It really goes to show how they can be twisted around to fit radically different viewpoints.

It also shows Naoya's biggest mistake. He's so caught up in his revenge scheme that forgotten: our protagonist doesn't remember his first death, or becoming a demon king. Maybe they'll come back eventually, now that he's a whole Bel. But not in a single day. As he is, he's a modern teenager with modern values, and with no particular beef with God (at least, nothing that he doesn't also have with Naoya). Even if Naoya was right about A-Bel, that isn't who his brother is now.

Congratulations on beating Amane's eighth day. I agree that this is probably the best Law ending in any Shin Megami Tensei game ever. Good luck on the bonus bosses.

Hmm, bonus bosses. In an Atlus game. Yeah, I'm not suprised they're difficult. Heck, if we had a That One Bonus Boss page, Atlus would get a folder or subpage dedicated to them (kinda like how they have their own That One Boss subpage).

However, at this point, I'm really waiting on the other endings and 8th Days...

Here's something interesting: Yomotsu-Ikusa's actually has a limit on how many reinforcements he can summon. Once he runs out, he will begin to move to try and kill you. Yeah, that thing about his racial skill preventing him from moving turned out to be complete baloney.

This ending has a few holes in it. To begin with, take a look at my previous overview of the disadvantages of this route.

Back? Okay. First, while the ending narration here says that you wiped out all of the angels in your escape, leaving no one to help mankind reseal the demons... No, that really didn't happen. You fought a small group of angels (admittedly, including two leaders), then the story forgets that there should be hundreds more in the wings.

Then, there's God's Thunder. What happened to it? It wasn't even mentioned in this ending, and we aren't shown any reason why this ending isn't just a repeat of Honda's on Day 6.

Changing the subject, Izuna's defeat quote. It's a good line, but not good enough to make her a sympathetic character in my eyes. On day 6, with her attack on the Shomonkai and briefly cornering Amane, she showed that she was actually quite competent in her way. But because she took too long to take real action beyond standing guard (admittedly, that in itself was quite taxing mentally), she had no real effect.

Now, all of the problems I addressed here do have their solutions (or at least expansions) elsewhere in the game. Shall we have a look?

Ah yes, the only truely bad ending the game has (well, that doesn't then give you a game over afterwards).

As mentioned, it is also the easiest ending, and the guaranteed fallback option if you screw up too much with saving people. Both of these factors made it an attractive option for a first ending to hit, especially in the DS version where you don't have the Surivior Awards screwing over your NG+ features, making getting the other endings easier.

Naoya's email fills in a few plot holes, but opens up another one. The original 7 days made it pretty clear that Jezebel was winning the battle in the center of Amane's mind. Having her suddenly retreat is clearly just an excuse to have Amane still alive in spite of our party not exorcising her.

Thinking about it logically, either Naoya is lying or Jezebel had another reason to run away.

...And the battle message of "You broke their guns!" is delightfully Narmy.

When I played through this section, My MC considered just leaving Kaido to the authorities, and only saved him for completion's sake.

You skipped over a few parts of Izune's capture of Amane which I found interesting: Izuna put Amane in custody to prevent the angels from killing her. What's interesting about that is that Izuna's lack of knowledge makes her unreliable - she doesn't know that Amane had defected to the Angels' side, just that Amane is a Shomunkai member. And since we don't see the arrest or angels coming after them... It's unclear whether really are trying to kill Amane or not.

Either way, we never see Amane again in this route.

Izuna soon disappears as well. I like to think Fushimi assigned her someplace else to spare her conscience as he put his own plans for catching the party into high gear.

Interesting...

So, Fushimi talks about how someone needs to take responsibility for the disaster, while simultaneously trying to shield the government from their deserved blame. When you think about it, the theme of taking responsibility doesn't quite work...

Especially with Naoya acting like he has nothing to do with this. It would've been a neat little twist of the aesop the day's trying to present by having him be more gloaty.

Congratulations on completing this Eighth Day. I feel like this is probably the most needed Eighth Day since it turns Yuzu's original Downer Ending into an Earn Your Happy Ending.

Let me guess, your save is now next to ungodly powerful?

...

Pun not intended, but found suitably funny in hindsight.

Yep. Every one of my active demons are either in upper seventies or low eighties, with Metatron and Okuninushi cracking Lv. 90. I'm gonna need all those levels in the future though...

Let's talk about the Schrödinger's Gun elements in the endings, since we're beginning to see them.

First, the Final option's schedule moving up. It makes sense that this would be circumvented in Amane's route, but why would it happen in Atsuro's but not Yuzu's? I'll go ahead and say now that the deadline is set to a different time depending on the route, and it's always just barely enough. But it doesn't make sense for the player's decisions the previous night to shift the actions of the military.

Second, Jezebel. She isn't fought here, but there's no explanation for why Belberith would snipe her here and not in other routes. It's not a matter of timing - there's another route where her boss fight takes place at the same time we discover she's gone in this one.

Also of note is that Remiel doesn't leave Amane in this route. (While they don't have the information to realize this, there may not Be an Amane to return control to anymore.)

So which route are you going to tackle the ultimate Bonus Boss on?

On Gin's, which will be the last one I tackle. Both for a sort of Grand Finale, and so that I can take advantage of the oodles of EXP Naoya's 8th day will have so I can strengthen my demons.

Naoya makes a few interesting points during his "negotiations" with Fushimi, like how "angels won't tell you anything there's the slightest chance you could figure out yourself". An anti-villainous protagonist should still have gotten the option to smack him for dodging blame and accusations, though.

...Well, True Demon End, here we come...

Nah, this ending isn't anywhere near as bad as the True Demon one, even if you do go the evil route. At least here time and life still exists!

I just made it to this sequence myself.

Izuna is better here than in the entire rest of the game, and I felt some satisfaction upon hearing that the SDF had mutinied out of the government's control. That I did not expect.

Everyone uniting under your banner felt a bit rushed, even with all of the buildup. But it was otherwise a great scene.

Out of curiosity.... how powerful are your Demons right now? Since you mentioned earlier that you would use the Naoya Eight Day to strenghten them for the final Bonus Boss?

All of them are Lv.99. I'm going to use the Skill Set Bonus feature to tweak their command skills a bit and maybe buff some of their stats with Mitamas, but generally I've got them all where I want them. All the humans too as a side effect, though sadly their levels will reset once I start the next playthrough.

Well, at least building your humans back into level 99 is a lot less frustrating then building your demons all the way into that level, especially if you lift the Anti-Grinding.

Remind me, does Experience gets divided with all Party members of an unit? Because if yes, you can speed things up a bit by bringing just one incredibly powerful Demon along, instead of two.

And yeah, I would suggest boosting up with Mitamas as well, you can never be too careful.

I don't believe it does, unfortunately. Thanks to the Leaked Experience system this game and the sequel have the most efficient way of level grinding humans is to just have your Hero solo everything.

Well, looks like it's time for what is, as far as I'm concerned, the best ending: Gin and Haru's.

...I just remembered, the final bonus boss is every SMT fan's favorite slightly psychotic death dealing Lewis Carroll reference, isn't it?

No, that one is in Devil Survivor 2.

The Demi-fiend is not the only SMT boss with rules. Elizabeth (or Theodore in P3 Portable) and Margaret set some (and then promptly not tell you), and failing to follow them results in them pulling out a Pixie that puts the Demi-fiend's to shame, and preceding to hit you for 9999 damage every turn until you die and stay dead.