Shin Megami Tensei Series

Ronaldo's a bit of an idiot. But he's ultimately trying to do the right thing.

Yamato's a teenage edgelord that inherited a fortune, got it inside his head that he earned it because he's better than you, and then says it's unfair when poor people take from the rich to survive.

I have little reason to ever go for his route.

I think that's a bit disingenuous(is that the right word here?). Yes he inherited his position, but he was raised to meet it's requirements and apparently does his job well. His main issue is about competence, and he does recognize it, which is why the new recruits are basically leading the charge and Yamato's ending has acknowledging that MC will replace him.

Edited by Cross on Mar 13th 2019 at 2:18:32 PM

Yeah the whole point with him is that he had to earn his place as leader of J Ps and he has been nonstop since he was three years old learning to it. Not time off, no time to himself. Nothing but work and more work. Its why his FATE is about learning to enjoy small things in life he was never allowed to before, such as sweets.

The Japanese guidebook that came out way back when apparently mentioned there were numerous other members of the clan, but they were so bad in comparison a child ran J Ps better than they did, and he actively sought competent people to join while the clan relied on nepotism, not even skill, for most of its past members. Which is still most of their mooks.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Mar 13th 2019 at 10:37:54 AM

So I played the last MC as very serious and deadpan; I always picked the most terse option available. (and there were almost always only two options anyway....) I looked at him and the situation and said "he's so over all this shit." But here, in De Su 2, I feel like my character is far more laid back and silly. Having just recruited Joe, I feel even more comfortable being a jolly ol' clown. It helps there is more dialogue variety so far. I like to pick the "...what? I wasn't listening/paying attention" responses to situations, especially the tense ones.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. I almost feel bad for criticizing Atsuro so sharply. I don't have anything against Daichi but what's up with Best Friend Who Sucks At School? Atsuro being a computer whiz was a nice change of pace. It's all well and good to look at pretty girls with your buddy but Daichi feels so far like an inferior Yosuke much like how Yuzu was an inferior Asahi. If you're gonna be a trope or cliche, you gotta execute it well. Maybe I'll end up liking Daichi more as teh game goes on, it's not like I hate him or anything. I just feel more kinship with Joe.

And Io's "hands up terrified/shocked face" is the best damn thing. It's hilarious.

That soldier lady and her outfit sure as incompetent. We have now escaped tehm twice in teh first hour or two of the game.

Also when I first loaded up the game back a week ago or whatever I accidentaly skipped right to the second part. So I'm gonna be fighting a being called Polaris or something eventually I guess. I didn't watch or play beyond that, thankfully. I honestly don't remember anything besides that part.

"Pick up the pace" you can say to the girl with the hurt foot as you trek your way through demon-infested areas to try and see if her parents are okay. But I offered her a piggyback ride because I'm nice and silly.

Holy shit I am lucky. I had Leader Soul on and nearly got myself killed by Dubhe because he went to kill my Pixie and I valiantly got in the way. I would absolutely be dead if I hadn't just right before this cracked Anti-Fire and put it on me. Hooray!

So I have to be real careful about spending Macca in this game. I just had a special auction come up and got two awesome demons from it. I'd hate for it to happen and I have no money to get all these awesome demons with helpful abilities. Ogre with Berserk and Phys Up? YES THANK YOU!

So I was mildly worried for that asshole kid. Time was flying and I didn't find any clues about his whereabouts. Coupled with the fact I was just warned about expecting a few people to die in my first ever totally blind run, I figured we had Casualty #1.

But forget him. Snazzy dresser? Check. Boisterous personality? Also check. Voiced by Wendee Lee? We have found Daichi's replacement on the team as soon as Hinako is playable.

So I accidentally started the game on Apocalypse difficulty. There's only two difficulties so I'm not sure which this is but it's not the easy one. I noticed around the time random fights were taking way too long. But I'm rolling with it, I wanna see how far I can get. Making good use of Race abilities. In the first game I kinda forgot about those much of the time and when I was in peril I just looked to see if I had any worth anything. like Gin nearly died to Azuma so I was grateful I had an Avatar to Switch me with him and beat the boss while saving Gin. Switch has been extremely helpful in the last two story fights, getting Io to the weird lady and also getting Hinako out of danger. (she died my first attempt when I forgot I had Switch)

Also I can't help but notice that in the FATE profiles Io and Daichi aren't even the top spots. There is an empty spot at the beginning. I wonder who could be more important than them.

What kind of monster picks the asshole choices every time Io wants to speak and you have to encourage her?

Can somebody explain to me how to get Add-Ons? The game was beyond vague. Like, is it against bosses you have to do really well or can I get them from fighting Free Battles? For story missions I don't give a shit about EXP or Macca, I just do my best to kill stuff as soon as possible by going after the leader Fatal Strike has been incredibly useful. I can get money and experience in free battles. But I don't want to miss out on useful additions to my demons

And that's Day 2 done. This is gonna be a short game if this keeps up.

I might actually talk to Keita now he's stop being the world's biggest shithead. Except he only does that when I leave so...oh well. I'll miss Hinako.

I am really enjoying myself. I just barely beat Marak, was totally out of MP and one of the bombs was right tehre by the thingit was gonna explode but I still did it. Playing on hard isn't so bad at all.

I am frustrated because I wanted to post the amazing boss theme for the...the things, Dubhe and Marak and the five others, but typing "Devil Survivor 2 boss theme:" into YT gets me a bunch of other stuff. I didn't look at any of the titles for fear of spoilers, just clicked and listened to the first second but the first five or so videos were all songs that were not that one. It's so amazingly intense and....awe-inspiring is a good description.

Favorite characters so far are Io and Hinako and Joe. Daichi is just kinda bland and dunno what to think of Makoto or Yamato yet. Although I drop my goofy personality when dealing with Yamato and only select the serious replies.

I forgot to mention there was an interesting discussion in the first game where Naoya asked me if I thought humans were more like gods or demons. I said demons but he disagreed, said humans are a mix of both, and I do see his point. Human...ambiguity and "vagueness" to use his term are endlessly frustrating. Maybe that's part of why I hate Neutral so much. I told Lucifer I want "a sublime world without ambiguity" and I very much meant it. (although I'm not sure if the game was thinking the same way I was thinking)

Edited by Nikkolas on Mar 14th 2019 at 12:42:40 PM

Septentriones. Battlefield and Boss theme

It actually doesn't have that name in it at all which is pretty dumb. I just looked at the OST and figured and hoped the songs would be in order. They were.

@ Hamburger Time

Obviously I can't speak too much about Yamato right now. I don't hold it against him for prioritizing people who can fight though.

I dunno, my preferences vary a lot. If I had any core philosophy, it is probably "be true to your beliefs to the very end." God knows I don't do that but it's what i admire in a lot of people. Also I just plain like some people and dislike others. lol I've been Law and Chaos because of that or at least in part because of that. I guess you could say I am looking to be...convinced. Anyone and anything could potentially convince me.

Gotta say though, Chaos felt right in the last game. I felt it from the moment I started the game. I legitimately have no idea what direction I'll go here.

Hinako's stat spread completely outclasses Daichi and leaves her tailor-made for Multi-Strike when you eventually encounter it. There's a single-target version in this game called Multi-Hit you'll encounter sooner if not already.

As for Add-Ons, the game never explains this but according to a Let's Play I read the rate you acquire them has to do with those bonus percentages you get at the end of skirmishes for the macca bonus. Once you accumulate say, three-hundred percentage points total for example you'll receive an Add-On and they're given to you in a set order, with better ones showing up as you progress through the game. The rate you accrue them at is much faster in story battles versus free battles.

@ Shirow: Exactly, Yamato is an overprivileged prat born with a silver spoon in every orifice who wants to wipe out everyone lower than him on the Ayn Rand scale. I see no significant difference between him and someone like Donald Trump, save that Yamato is young and Handsome while Trump is old and ugly.

Yamato also actually has some leadership skills and isn't afraid to get his own hands dirty in a fight.

Despite his head start in life, Yamato at least has the grace to be very competent at his job

Actually, I think that Donald Trump would be the sort of person Yamato would flat-out murder. Incompetence isn't something that he tolerates.

Saying that Yamato will kill people for merely being incompetent is a bit of a mischaracterization, IMO. There're a couple scenes in his Fate chain where he directly addresses this - if someone shows no capacity for improvement he's not going to punish them because it'll be pointless. He'll just put them in a box where they can't do any harm or leave them out in the cold instead. Now if you're actively opposing him, that's a different story. He's ruthless sure, but certainly never struck me as bloodthirsty.

And for what it's worth his character arc in the Triangulum arc is about him eventually realizing that he's kind of a Know-Nothing Know-It-All and that he has to experience the world for himself in a different context than the one he's been living all his life in.

Edited by ComicX6 on Mar 14th 2019 at 8:54:26 AM

@ Comic X 6

Thanks for the tips. I think I might be screwed then. For example I just saved Airi from rioters and just hitting them as hard as I could as fast as I could was all I aimed for. Maybe in non timed missions I can try to be more strategic... I was being strategic here at first but my MC kept getting swarmed. Devil Speed really fucks you over. Then I had to forego Anti Electric because it was on a demon in a fight with the team leader who had another skill to Crack and I couldn't waste time as the guy will escape or kill Airi if you doddle like I was doing to try and get both skills from one fight.

I dunno, I exploit weaknesses and stuff and do everything I can think to. I just know that short of being overpowered as fuck and killing everything in one go, I tend to get less than amazing Macca Bonuses. That's why I like Free Battles, you get to prepare and familiarize yourself with things. I suppose you can do that with plot battles too but that ruins the story. I don't want to go grind or lay out a detailed gameplan unless I absolutely have to. I'd prefer one-and-done, even if it's sloppy.

I got Str+2 but I doubt I'll ever get any of the great Add-Ons. They apparently become very good later on.

Oh and I just learned Multi Hit from this exact fight. lol

But seriously, what's with these games and hidden, shitty systems they don't tell you anything about?

Edited by Nikkolas on Mar 14th 2019 at 8:59:16 AM

Oh don't worry, you'll get some good ones just by playing the game normally, trust me. The stat boosters are underwhelming, but many of them let you freely teach demons any skill of a certain element or let you delete their preset skills so you have more room for custom ones during fusion.

Alright everyone. Nik gets it. We must now cut him all the slack.

He understands the greatness that is Io's don't shoot pose. He's now Critic-Proof.

You are a wise man Nik....today.

Maybe, may not be. Emotional appeals to convince others a character sucks and being rubbed the wrong way by how a character comes off are valid things to feel because that's how your perceptions were colored by the world, and fictional reflects what we think about real life. None of Shirow's or Hamburger's arguments would sway me to their negative opinion on Yamato, but them's the brakes.

If you don't see a death video, they're gonna be fine.

Not sure if you misunderstood me I was speaking of a battle fail condition where she can die in battle. In any event, that's good to hear. I like her. Then again, I started off liking Midori too and that didn't end well. Still, she does not seem half as obnoxious.

I did that fight over again to get Anti Elec. For soem reason, you can let one guy escape and still get Mission Accomplished.

When I first saw it as her reacting to the MC's Death Video I just couldn't stop laughing. The fact Daichi had no reaction to the video only made her reaction even funnier.

Io is pretty great.

Edited by Nikkolas on Mar 14th 2019 at 9:45:44 AM

Given that his world seems to still have demons, that's a pretty sure death sentence for many.

Yamato's world is interesting in that is the most "realistic" of all them, and thus...is not really going to be pleasant, honestly, is interesting to think how they would manage it, but certainly is going to be a bad place to live unless you fit.

Now. I'm noticing a notorious lack of nuance here. There a series of middle points between "Yamato was 100% right in everything" and "Yamato is a whiny edgelord with no redeeming traits".

And yeah, how Ronaldo gets treaten for the narrative is always hilarious Snark Bait.

Edited by KazuyaProta on Mar 14th 2019 at 2:26:19 PM

Meritocracy is never about just physical power, but intelligence and even leadership.

This is why a literal A Child Shall Lead Them is depicted in one scene leading a bunch of teens and adults for he is the most competent and skilled at it. This Meritocracy human civilization still flourishes even with the existence of demons, because they are nothing compared to the Aliens that oversee the universe and humanity can put them in their place.

Unlike say IV where Meritocracy was used by the rich elite in the Ring if Gaia to get richer, when money isn't a form of power in a true meritocracy. Not to mention wanting demons to rule over them and their inability to accept their pathetic strength means theyd actually be at the bottom of such a system.

This is obvious when even a demon like Obariyon, which can push a speeding train out of the way, can be beaten by normal humans. IE humans in De Su 2 universe are nothing to sneeze at when it comes to natural strentgh and given the opportunies to grow.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Mar 14th 2019 at 1:16:51 AM

Hinako is the closest thing you'll get to Midori in this game. General opinion is that she handles Midori's archetype far better.

Yeah, when later in the game the playables split into factions, there is an unkillable character in each faction besides you and the faction leader. Even if you kill everyone, there are still at least 3 party members to play with. Not counting the last route, that is

I just assumed there was a Harmonizer function that no bothered to explain, especially since durability seems to fluctuate otherwise.

I also assumed the Harmonizer was a thing in 2 since it was such a vital part of 1 (as in why humans could punch out demons with their bare fists, which we see quite a bit with 2 as well...mostly Jungo and Keita though).

I'm conflicted.

Jungo just died on me. I said I'd let the chips fall where they may because that's the point of a blind run. But everybody loves him....I'm torn on reloading and maybe saving him Dunno if I even could. I'd go to a plot thing instead of talking to Io. But I finally got her FATE up to Level 2 for Joint Cracking!

Nope, looks like I saved when it was too late. Alas poor Jungo.

FOR JUMBO!

Edited by Nikkolas on Mar 15th 2019 at 3:58:09 AM

Damn, Jungo is one of the better units imo. I really liked the big guy character-wise as well. At least Keita development gete better.