Shin Megami Tensei Series

I like Chiaki's fall, because as brief a look at her we get, there is a sense of progression in her mindset. From I'm scared and can't find anyone, but I won't admit it, to I come from a place of privilege and people take what they want in this world without morals, so why not me? Then she goes to grab the Yahirono Himorogi, suffers horribly but manages to escape with her life intact. And then because a spirit of rage sympathizes with her, she throws out her humanity, and decides to one up her power from there and make a world where people like her can muscle out anything that'll make her weak and afraid. All under the pretense of anything that's strong is good and beautiful to give her survival purpose.

Anyone's guess how she got between all the minibosses you and your demons had to fight through, but whateves.

Theres actually hints that these are simply natural progressions of their viewpoints when the earth was normal. Only in the Vortex World they decide to center the world around said belief.

I'm kind of sad we don't get another game set in one of those. It's a great way to clear out the moral ambiguity. In what's supposed to be very choice-driven narratives, having a bunch of friends and allies, and opposing forces feels like I'm less making my own path and doing whatever people are forcing me to do. I like SMT because it takes a step back from the frequent moralizing of Persona where the silent protagonist and choices feel like more of an afterthought.

I love how, even when on the Law path, giving Irving and Chen forma to work with still describe them as being inspired by their "burning soul."

Ha! As if they have anything resembling a soul in them at that point.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Jun 17th 2019 at 7:32:27 AM

Finally mapped out the entirety of the Empyrean Ascent and have started taking on Lucifer's generals. Got Belial and Nebiros so far.

You've evidently had an easier time than I. What strategies have you used?

Same one you did: Riot Gun + Charge from a demon stuffed so full of Incenses that they'll probably smell of smoke for all eternity.

Also beat Beelzebub and Lucifuge. The prize you get from defeating all four is...somewhat underwhelming, but then again, the true prize is unlocking the four for fusion.

Going to go after the Final Boss soon.

Lemme guess: Lucifuge was the hardest for you because his Gun immunity?

Saved up on Spearhead so my demons can go to town on him once the buffs and debuffs were finished. Same with Belial.

...why didn't I think of that?

Well, I'm never forgetting Riot Gun, Charge, and Concentrate ever again. It's so strange how long into my Megaten career it took for me to start using the latter two regularly. I guess I thought two regular attacks were just as good, but I don't think that's actually the case.

Edited by HamburgerTime on Jun 2nd 2019 at 9:44:01 AM

And now my Law+ run is done! Funny enough, what happened in the ending was what I expected the Law ending to be like when I picked up the original Strange Journey. The brainwashing scene quickly dispelled that notion.

I really, really hope Shekinah shows up in future games, because damn she has great artwork that I would love to see in 3D. Especially if those three faces writhe about.

Riot Gun in SJ is so arbitrarily better than everything else that I almost suspect it might be a programming oversight. It is, for whatever reason, twice as powerful as the other two "severe" single-targets, Deadly Wind and Trisagion, and the only other attack that equals it is Antichthon. But wait, there's more! Single-target spells do more damage per target than multi-target ones do, so, in other words, Riot Gun is actually much better than Antichthon against a single opponent such as an especially aggravating boss!

One thing about the Law+ ending that I found weird is that it mentioned that human development slowed somewhat without competition. The DeSu2 Egalitarian ending says this too. I don't... really get it to be honest. Certainly with everyone working together things would advance faster? Somebody at Atlus must really have a bugaboo with this concept for some reason.

Order = Stagnation. Change = Chaos.

Got to say, Zelenin's smile in the Law+ ending is really nice. It definitely looks like she regained her humanity.

Also liked how the route to Shekinah is the Boss Corridor you get whenever you go up to fight YHVH (Demiurge has it too).

the idea is that if no one's dissatisfied with the status quo, you remove people's drive for improving because what they already have is good enough. Improvement for improvement's sake is meaningless.

Peace without end leading to indolence is a Thing in speculative fiction

I'm most familiar with the idea in Nasuverse works, but I'm pretty sure I first saw it in Desu 2.

Actually speaking of, current builds of Citra can't run Devil Survivor Overclocked. Is the DS original still a solid game?

Of course, you'll just have to put up with the lack of compendium.

@ asterism: Isn't that kind of a screwed-up message, though? It basically implies that world peace would not be something worth striving for in the long run because of that indolence. It really reads like them scrambling to find some excuse for that world not being a true utopia for ambiguity's sake. Just seems tacked on to me.

It's a Fantastic Aesop because we don't know what world peace looks like, so more often than not any claim of world peace being possible is given a large enough downside to make the ideal not worth it. The thing is you really need the sacrifice to be beyond the pale.

It's why an Emobidment of Order was born from people's Sloth in P5.

Stagnation and unchanging status quo to ensure nothing ever rocks the boat.

I... guess, but wouldn't you think everyone living for others and working together would result in progress? New disease cures, ways of fixing the environment...

I actually never knew that so many people were creeped out by "greatest good for the greatest number" kind of thinking until I started debating philosophy in video games. I always thought it was common sense.

It would still hurt people in the short term. For example, weapons manufacturers and dealers would lose their jobs if world peace were to occur overnight, even if it's just a pipe dream.

Edited by CybranGeneralSturm on Jun 7th 2019 at 12:54:00 PM