Shin Megami Tensei Series

I honestly just want a legit SMT/Digimon crossover, especially sine the latter series, while it has Kid fans still, has been leaning more towards adults as a result of bad toy sales and anime viewership. Its also the only other mon's series I feel fits thematically with SMT, due to the digital nature of their monsters and similar designs for the angels and demons of both series.

Yep, totally agreed. Devil Survivor 2 is one of the best SMT games ever. Until that second part....

I just ignore the Tri arc. It is so superfluous and bad. Atlus seems to like addding unnecessary crap to great games.

Yamato explains why he disagreed with Al Saiduq's plan during the Triangulum arc: he feels that completely throwing away the world mankind had already built would've been an admission of defeat, on top of everything else regarding his feelings for a meritocracy, etc.

Like Marie in P 4 G.

Hey, at least with Record Breaker's new arc we got new demons and new girl Miyako, who was cut during development of the original game but made it back in for the rerelease.

Edited by CybranGeneralSturm on Oct 12th 2019 at 11:53:11 AM

Guessing they brought back her design and concept of "Yamato's twin".

At the same tome, Tri also reveals that Als ending ends up putting the earth outside the Admin system in a new universe.

Which explains why he fuses with the earth. He can'f stay with humanity if he didn't abandon what he was before.

I haven't tried the second arc yet, still going over the remake's first part.

Welp, after years of off-and-on play, a time of 99:58:44 on the in game clock, and several instances of my 3DS nearly dying in the middle of the play after much progress since my last save, I have finally yeeted YHVH in Apocalypse.

Bonds route, took three attempts. First two both made it to second phase, but respectively died in the second round and first round of said phase. Third time's the charm, after selling my crap and shelling out for that repel phys armor in Ginza (and some shiny new bullets while I was at it), made it through phase one with little issue aside from MP management on my demons - had very limited MP items, mostly used HP items and Asahi for healing aside from an emergency Salvation or two. Walter came in clutch with Magaon, took a while for Flynn to give some good weaknesses in the first round, and Jonathan mostly did nothing but some item usage until the end of first round when I finally got Light weakness.

Second stage is where things got real interesting - weaknesses had reset and my Demiurge and Samael were running low on MP, Shiva made himself useful with some scratch damage on a smirk and an emergency Mediarahan that consumed most of his MP. Thankfully this time Flynn made good progress on opening weaknesses, and Walter in clutch again with Magaon. Just managed to get Ice, Lightning, Force, and Darkness opened all the way before team Samurai wiped after hella supernova abuse.

By this point my few mp items were prioritized to Samael for Invitation and Deadly Wind purposes, Demiurge only got two or three shots of Ice Age off before running out and playing meat shield for the remainder of his time. Without Walter I panicked for a moment when I realized I had nothing to get rid of Smirk, but had plenty of stones for debuffing; so between that and Asahi just managed to hang on through a number of rounds of bullshit. Unfortunately this all happened immediately after Team Samurai bit it so it took a fair bit of Samael's Invitation and summon stones pulling heavy duty before I could really hammer Him. Demiurge ended up getting yeeted, and Shiva dropped as well, so it fell to Innana and Odin as my backups; great for hitting weaknesses, but both lower level and with much less HP. The repel phys armor managed to cut YHVH's turns just enough that I could make do, and on what I realized would be my last possible turn (Asahi and Samael down, YHVH smirked, me, Innana & Odin all at half health), Odin dealt the killing blow on the final press turn with (uncharged!) Thunder Reign.

Nearly shat myself when people started talking and I was afraid there was still more to come, but then the game asked if I wanted to deal the final blow and I smashed that button with the fury of a thousand suns.

Ending scene was quite touching.

Then the power indicator started flashing during the credits. The unskippable credits.

...

Mercifully, I was in a car and had a power adaptor so I could plug in and get my clear save.

Probably gonna take my sweet time clearing out my backlog before touching Strange Journey/V (whatever decade it comes out in)/any other Atlas game really.

Edited by TheAirman on Oct 13th 2019 at 10:04:22 AM

IVA YHVH was certainly the hardest final boss I've seen in an SMT gam up to this point. I never beat him without turning down the difficulty. I will beat him one of these days on a replay where I know what I'm doing, I swear it. And on Apocalypse Mode, too!

Maybe Dagda was right though, you really do become dependent on Asahi and her healing by t he end. Who would take anyone else to fight YHVH?

Glad to hear you liked it, though. Best SMT game. Also while the final dungeon is garbage, that final fight and boss theme make it all worth it.

Edited by Nikkolas on Oct 14th 2019 at 8:12:43 AM

I took Hallelujah. Every time.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Oct 14th 2019 at 1:36:07 AM

Isabeau is also a good option, but you can only have her as your partner if you go Massacre (which I will pretty much always do except for the one time I went Bonds to get Asahi's Awakening). It also helps that I find the Boss Banter to be more interesting on Massacre.

Massacre. Isabaeu. Works every time. I never go through with Bonds, i'm told it has a happy ending but no happy ending is worth betraying Dagda and replacing him with a soulless yes-man. Plus Massacre is the most badass Chaos route in this series, you don't just kill YHVH you take His place. I heard that in Bonds YHVH might come back after being defeated so that just means the entire cast is at risk of suffering a Hijiri.

You like Dagda so much you'd never even try the other ending?

I only went through the Bonds route once and that was solely to get Asahi's Awakening. After that, back to the Crush Kill Destroy -fest that is Massacre for all subsequent play-throughs.

Edited by CybranGeneralSturm on Oct 14th 2019 at 4:12:40 AM

If Dagda died and that was it, i'd go bonds, but the fact that they replace him with a clone who is subservient to his mother and us, is what tears it. That's such a goddamn horrifying concept to me, dying and getting replaced with a version of you that doesn't question group dynamics and is basically a slave. Granted the same happens to Flynn and whoever you pick as your goddess but at least they aren't being replaced. Plus i like Dagda, and getting replaced by a clone sycophant, proves his point about bonds, they'll like you except when you DARE voice your own opinion contrary to the groups.

Also i tried going Bonds at first, but when i got that scene i reloaded and went massacre. Sure i lost all my items but it was worth it.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Oct 14th 2019 at 4:08:11 AM

Granted the "opinion" you offer in contradiction to the groups is rather...extreme. And it's not just an opinion, either. You're gonna fundamentally alter the universe.

Autonomy and freedom is a delicate thing. Not everybody who the group shouts down is right. Sometimes it's good they were shot down.

I feel bad for Dagda but the Dagda we knew is dead. We brought a new puppet in his place but that's okay because it's not him. He was not enslaved and brought back like your companions can be. The Dagda we knew all game is finally free which is all he ever wanted.

I feel worse for killing my friends, I have to say. Still kinda irks me Toki said she'd stay with me whatever I decideed and then she immediately sided against me in Anarchy but...oh well. Whenever I start up the game again I'm gonna go Anarchy for real this time an d see it through tothe end and I 'll resurrect Toki as my Dark Queen.

As for YHVH coming back, He probably will. Such is the way of Neutral. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. It's why I chose Ronaldo's path in the Tri arc of De Su 2.You must always fight for freedom.

Edited by Nikkolas on Oct 14th 2019 at 4:19:33 AM

I mean its the nature of demons to repeat their history, And Puppet Dagda is like the original except a slave to his bond with his mother.

New Dagda isn't a slave so much as he was recreated pre-character development.

Overthrowing YHVH and recreating the universe may be extreme but considering Tokyo is likely the last bastion of humanity, and Massacre does support it after we kill Skins and the other guy, it's a logical extreme. Either we recreate the universe or we live our lives until all of humanity dies out and YHVH repeats the cycle. Also i'm pretty sure Bonds and Massacre and Law and Chaos in different names. But at least in Massacre YHVH is dead for good in that universe, and it's up to our imagination on what universe we create i guess. Bonds mentions (at least to my knowledge.) that YHVH will return so it's likely the entire cast will suffer a Hijiri.

I actually like the cast of Apocalypse, it's just that i like Irish dad better. So sorry Toki, i'll make you the dark goddess next time.

In regards to Devil Survivor 2, while i actually like Ronaldo's ending, him and Yamato are rewriting the brains of humanity to fit in with their ideals. It is kind of a grey area since Polaris does this all the time, but true freedom is in Dachi's kill Polaris ending where Tokyo is the last bastion of humanity, no benevolent or evil gods to help/hinder humanity, and they all will die when the food and water runs out. The price of freedom. I still think Alcor's ending is the best.

It's like seeing the Gatekeeper on Crimson Flowers from Three Houses, but he's not the gatekeeper, just some pale imitation who pretends to be your friend while reminding you what you did.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Oct 14th 2019 at 4:59:58 AM

SMTIVA has a Law and Chaos route and they're bad ends that you have to reject. That's why most people interpret Peace/Bonds and Anarchy/Massacre as two shades of Neutral.

As for Ronaldo, fuck Ronaldo in the Sept arc of the main game. I only sided with his plan in Tri arc when Polaris is dead.

As for forcing everyone to believe stuff, I've thought about this. Most every human being is dead. How can you force nonexistent people into anything? The thing you make in Yamato's or Ronaldo's worlds might not even be "humans" in a technical sense but a new species you helped create. We can argue about how ethical or unethical that is but the coercion or force argument doesn't really apply.

Edited by Nikkolas on Oct 14th 2019 at 5:09:36 AM

I dunno, i see the initial Law and Chaos as false versions of them, as at least in Apocalypse's version of events, they are both pawns of YHVH, hence the different designs. Bonds has Law written all over it, you go with the group, reject other's viewpoints and maintain social harmony. Massacre is Chaos because you reject the morals of the group, follow your own personal ideals, obtain the strength to rule, work with a dude who hates YHVH and wants a free humanity, and ultimately kill God to take over yourself.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Oct 14th 2019 at 5:35:34 AM

That and the way Stephen, The Neutral Guy Himself, presents both Peace and Anarchy as valid routes to take.

@Nikkolas: I should hope YHVH is the strongest final boss. Considering, you know, capital G man Himself.

@Omega Radiance: I did actually go with Brollelujah the first attempt, but he just wasn't able to cover me well enough. I actually think its kinda funny I won using Asahi, it was maybe the second time in the entire game I partnered with her of my own volition.

As for Dagda, well on the one hand the Bonds situation was a little bit awkward, yes. On the other hand Dagda had forcefully used me as a meat puppet in the past and caused all this Divine Powers fuckery in doing so. And then threatened to reduce me to a mutilated corpse if I didn't commit omnicide for him, starting with everyone I know and care about. Danu also only does the thing after he starts using that power dynamic to outright kill you and the party asks her to intervene.

My interpretation of Nu Dagda's monologue at the end is that he isn't so much a slave to Danu as he is a less-edgy, non-omnicidal Dagda willing to at least try rebuilding instead of just yeeting the universe.

That said whenever I do get around to doing a new game, I absolutely will be going full kill 'em all.

Edited by TheAirman on Oct 14th 2019 at 11:45:52 AM

That's an excellent point. Yes, you turn Dagda into a hollowed-out meatpuppet on Peace, buuuuuuuut he did it to you first.