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In honor of 25 years of Demon Summoning, GAF Plays: The (Shin) Megami Tensei series
- Thread starter Jucksalbe
- Start date
She is indeed pretty awesome. My only problem with her is that
she spends most of the game MIA.
Just do what I'm doing right now and replay SMT3 in the First Person Mode option.
cj_iwakura
Member
To be fair, that applies to most of the cast.
That's the only way I play it.
perfect free
Member
One of my favorite aspects of Nocturne is that (demons aside) you're almost always alone, running through a world that is not only near-empty, but *huge*, with structures that often dwarf your character. The game has an incredible sense of scale. As a result, practically every cutscene carries that much more weight just by virtue of having someone else there with you.
Not that I'd really protest against more Yuko. Yuko is awesome.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
It is a very, very lonely game, especially during the 3rd quarter. And yeah, I harp on the power and "oasis in the desert" feel to cutscenes in it alot for good reason.
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
So... I am apparently on Sunday on Devil Survivor 2 which I think its the last day (8th).
The Saturday's boss fight against
was such an incredible hassle to beat. 4 tile range-attacks, Dragon's Eye (2x attack) Megido, Revive, Prayer, Samarecarm plus his MP constantly regenerating over and over... not to mention he got an incredible turn boost that allows him to attack in rapid, successive manner....
That was so like Devil Survivor. Can't imagine how hellish it would be without Suspend Save.
.....On the other hand, rocking a Purple Mirror with Reflect Phys, Fire, Ice, Elec, Curse, and Null Force and equipped with Mediarahan, Holy Dance, dan Drain (thank you Release Command add on!) with 40 magic. Also a Titania with 40 magic plus Recarmloss, Holy Dance, and Drain and boasting Reflect Physical, and Null Fire, Ice, Elec, Force, and Curse. The only thing touching them are Almighty attacks right now. So satisfying to be able to create them both with such set-ups.
In fact, I'd wager around 70-80% of my time spent playing Devil Survivor 2 can be relegated to creating and fusing Demons while trying to mitigate their weaknesses and installing as many awesome skills as possible. Such an addicting thing to do.
The Saturday's boss fight against
Yamato
That was so like Devil Survivor. Can't imagine how hellish it would be without Suspend Save.
.....On the other hand, rocking a Purple Mirror with Reflect Phys, Fire, Ice, Elec, Curse, and Null Force and equipped with Mediarahan, Holy Dance, dan Drain (thank you Release Command add on!) with 40 magic. Also a Titania with 40 magic plus Recarmloss, Holy Dance, and Drain and boasting Reflect Physical, and Null Fire, Ice, Elec, Force, and Curse. The only thing touching them are Almighty attacks right now. So satisfying to be able to create them both with such set-ups.
In fact, I'd wager around 70-80% of my time spent playing Devil Survivor 2 can be relegated to creating and fusing Demons while trying to mitigate their weaknesses and installing as many awesome skills as possible. Such an addicting thing to do.
Koroviev
Member
uh? I bet that you can do that only if you're playing the game on the PS2 emulator, too bad I'm not.
No, it's a New Game+ feature.
If!
Man, I already noticed it during my last playthrough of Nocturne but somehow the game freezes very often in the first kalpa. So very frustrating 
Changing demons from your active party seems to be helping somewhat but ir's still scary to lose progress to something you don't have control of. And Google tells me I'm not the only one having that problem, but it's not clear why it happens. Grrrr!
Changing demons from your active party seems to be helping somewhat but ir's still scary to lose progress to something you don't have control of. And Google tells me I'm not the only one having that problem, but it's not clear why it happens. Grrrr!
It's a new cycle feature, which is stupid, it should have been in there from the start. But it makes the game so much better, IMO.
Storming the Center!
Well, kind of!
Inside, there isn't really much of a panic at all.
In the bar, one of the temple knights foolishly gives me a door code like it's nothing.
In the control room, the Bishop lets us know that he's no longer going to be the one giving us orders. It seems that the senators want to speak with us directly, so we're about to head to a previously inaccessible part of the Center.
Once there, we run into one of the senators. He says that the other senators have lost their minds. They say they want to bring forth the Thousand Year Kingdom to usher in eternal peace, but in reality, their plan is one of supreme dominance.
A couple more steps, and...
A wall appears right in front of us. Isn't this familiar? It looks just like the wall from the dream sequence at the beginning of SMT1. This is an incredibly major point for determining alignment, as each choice gives a ton of points in either direction.
He who wishes to pass must hear my words and answer.
[crappy/quick translations follow]
Thine mother hath been possessed by a demon. In agony, she asks release from her suffering. Wilst thou put her out of her misery? [Yes, +major chaos points]
Thou hast 100,000 macca with which to buy expensive equipment, but before thee, thou can see crowds of starving people. Wilst thou relinquish the money to them? [No, +more chaos points]
Thou hast encountered unknown people on the road. They glare covetously at thee and thine companions. Wilst thou make the first strike? [No, +major law points]
These answers keep us on the neutral path, as evidenced by his reply.
Thou walk thine own road, relying on none but thyself. Long and hard is this road, but not without great reward.
Yay, neutral.
Walking further, we run intoHans Solo Zain. He's been turned to stone by someone.
So you've come after Zain, Aleph? He is now nothing but a statue - cold stone. Such is the fate of all traitors. You, too, shall be destroyed.
The center senator disappears and the two on the side turn into Raphael and Uriel. Fun times.
I thought it would be fun to do these battles with no demons, to make it even remotely challenging. It still wasn't that bad.
However, it's not over yet.
You'll pay for defeating Uriel and Raphael.
Michael: Now you must face me!
So I did. Still not too bad, but took a little longer.
Michael calls out to god and asks him to beat us down.
That one senator from the hallway shows up and expresses regret for what we had to do, but that it's not over yet.
A flash!
The One God! He isn't happy, so now we have to fight him.
YHVH appears!
This fight is easy, but very time-consuming without demons. I think it took me about 20 minutes to finish off, but I was never in danger of dying. Seriously, never let anybody tell you these games are hard.
How dare we raise are weapons against THE GOD. He promises to punish us and our children, and the children of our children, forever-!
The archangels controlling the Center have been defeated. Well...
There's one more.
He's actually Gabriel! He says it was the will of god for him and the others to bring forth the Thousand Year Kingdom, but he realized that Tokyo Millennium ended up being nothing but a means for tighter control on humanity. There's no place for a messiah in a place like this, so one never came. Once the angels realized there would be no messiah, they tried to create one, and it was here that their actions diverged from the will of god.
On the upside, Zain is now freed.
Yo, dawg. He's been freed now that the archangels have been defeated, but he acknowleges that it means that there's nobody to keep Millennium running. He isn't sure what will happen, now. Just then...
Emergency! A tremendous energy surge has been detected in Holytown!
And naturally, we have to be the ones to check it out.
Well, kind of!
Inside, there isn't really much of a panic at all.
In the bar, one of the temple knights foolishly gives me a door code like it's nothing.
In the control room, the Bishop lets us know that he's no longer going to be the one giving us orders. It seems that the senators want to speak with us directly, so we're about to head to a previously inaccessible part of the Center.
Once there, we run into one of the senators. He says that the other senators have lost their minds. They say they want to bring forth the Thousand Year Kingdom to usher in eternal peace, but in reality, their plan is one of supreme dominance.
A couple more steps, and...
A wall appears right in front of us. Isn't this familiar? It looks just like the wall from the dream sequence at the beginning of SMT1. This is an incredibly major point for determining alignment, as each choice gives a ton of points in either direction.
He who wishes to pass must hear my words and answer.
[crappy/quick translations follow]
Thine mother hath been possessed by a demon. In agony, she asks release from her suffering. Wilst thou put her out of her misery? [Yes, +major chaos points]
Thou hast 100,000 macca with which to buy expensive equipment, but before thee, thou can see crowds of starving people. Wilst thou relinquish the money to them? [No, +more chaos points]
Thou hast encountered unknown people on the road. They glare covetously at thee and thine companions. Wilst thou make the first strike? [No, +major law points]
These answers keep us on the neutral path, as evidenced by his reply.
Thou walk thine own road, relying on none but thyself. Long and hard is this road, but not without great reward.
Yay, neutral.
Walking further, we run into
So you've come after Zain, Aleph? He is now nothing but a statue - cold stone. Such is the fate of all traitors. You, too, shall be destroyed.
The center senator disappears and the two on the side turn into Raphael and Uriel. Fun times.
I thought it would be fun to do these battles with no demons, to make it even remotely challenging. It still wasn't that bad.
However, it's not over yet.
You'll pay for defeating Uriel and Raphael.
Michael: Now you must face me!
So I did. Still not too bad, but took a little longer.
Michael calls out to god and asks him to beat us down.
That one senator from the hallway shows up and expresses regret for what we had to do, but that it's not over yet.
A flash!
The One God! He isn't happy, so now we have to fight him.
YHVH appears!
This fight is easy, but very time-consuming without demons. I think it took me about 20 minutes to finish off, but I was never in danger of dying. Seriously, never let anybody tell you these games are hard.
How dare we raise are weapons against THE GOD. He promises to punish us and our children, and the children of our children, forever-!
The archangels controlling the Center have been defeated. Well...
There's one more.
He's actually Gabriel! He says it was the will of god for him and the others to bring forth the Thousand Year Kingdom, but he realized that Tokyo Millennium ended up being nothing but a means for tighter control on humanity. There's no place for a messiah in a place like this, so one never came. Once the angels realized there would be no messiah, they tried to create one, and it was here that their actions diverged from the will of god.
On the upside, Zain is now freed.
Yo, dawg. He's been freed now that the archangels have been defeated, but he acknowleges that it means that there's nobody to keep Millennium running. He isn't sure what will happen, now. Just then...
Emergency! A tremendous energy surge has been detected in Holytown!
And naturally, we have to be the ones to check it out.
Off to check out Holytown. It certainly sounds urgent!
Isn't it...? When we arrive, this guy has no idea what we're talking about. Everything's been fine. He suggests we ask around the grand church. Okay...
When we near the grand church...
What's going on her--
What the heck is this?
Apparently, ever since the weird tower appeared, everyone in Holytown has been feeling totally drained of energy.
Back in the bar, someone says that Louis Cyphre told him that the tower thing isn't really a tower, but the end of Moloch's tail. Word. I guess that means we need to go to the demon world again! But the old way isn't going to do it this time.
What other way did we hear about accessing the demon world? Oh, right, the pillars. We're still missing a couple, but we got hints on the locations of both of them much earlier in the game.
First, the elder of the mutants. He, too, thinks the tower must be Moloch's tail, and gives us the Venus pillar. One down.
Remember this guy? He showed up after we beat Betelgeuse, and said that he had dug up the Jupiter pillar. Well, he never gave it to us before, but he will now that Siren's song is no longer keeping him enraptured.
Time to put these pillars to use.
Around the lowermost floor of the underworld are these shrines. If we place the pillars at each one...
This creepy face shows up.
On it is a spot for the Sun pillar.
Once it's placed, some weird stuff happens, and...
We end up in a different place of the demon world than we were able to access before.
After only one step, we run into this guy. He welcomes us to the land of Yesod, saying they don't often get visitors from Malkuth. Malkuth is what they call the human realm, he says.
It's not far before we come across a building. It leads to the town of Yesod proper. Inside, all of the standard amenities you'd expect of a town are present, manned by demons, except...
In one room, we run into Steven in front of a weird-looking stone. He doesn't say much aside from remarking that this is the first time we've encountered each other outside of the virtual battler. He says that we can use these stones just like terminals once he sets it up for us. And so he does. Thanks again, buddy-
Inside the bar, we meet someone who tells us about how the demon world is structured. It's divided into 9 areas, connected by 3 passages. We're currently at Yesod, the entrance to the demon world, which is connected to Malkuth - the human realm - and to 3 other areas of the demon world via the Yetzirah passage: Hod, Netzach, and Tipheret. From Tipheret, the Beri'ah passage can be taken to Gevurah or Chesed. The third passage, Atziluth, connects Gevurah with Binah and Chokmah.
It sounds kinda complicated, but it really isn't. It's also kind of like a perverted version of the Sephirot.
Another bar patron lets us know that Hecate guards the junction in the Yetzirah passage. Another helpfully informs us that she gets her power from the moon, which is a very good thing to know indeed.
There's not much else to do here after shopping and such, so let's head to the Yetzirah passage.
The path is very straightforward, until we get to Hecate.
Under orders from Lucifer, I'm not to let anybody pass. I don't need the powers of the moon to defeat someone like you.
This boss is REALLY easy. It only took a couple of rounds, even with just my two human characters. Sadly, not all bosses are quite this easy.
Hecate cries out to Lucifer and we get to choose which junction to take. The path to Tipheret is blocked at the moment, so we go to Hod first.
There's nothing in Hod except for a healing spot for Law characters and a boss.
Tiamat, as it happens. She's heard from Lucifer about us, that she shouldn't hold back against us, but is convinced she can beat us since we're only humans.
Oki bibuy. Harder than Hecate, but we still won.
Are you really humans? Such strength. I could have never held back...
We get the ayin key. Next!
This time we choose Netzach.
This place only has one building of interest as well.
Inside, demons have some interesting things to say. Apparently, Crowley here wants very badly to have a Sabbath. But isn't a Sabbath kind of a weird thing to have in the demon world, since demons don't need to be summoned?
Another helpfully informs us that the Sabbaths only take place during the full moon.
Crowley is angry, because Lucifer wouldn't allow him to have his Sabbath. He doesn't want to "hold it," which is phrased in such a way to hint at something kind of naughty.
At least he put up more of a fight than the others.
Apparently, he thought that he could have endless Sabbaths in the demon world. Sorry, man. Demon sex parties are kinda weird, anyway.
We get the Lamedh key.
Outside, this guy comes up to us. He says that Crowley can't be dead, because if he were, then he would not longer be living, since Crowley revived him in the first place.
To Tipheret!
The path has a door with two keyholes. We use the Ayin and Lamedh keys, and emerge...
In a familiar place. Indeed, this is the area of the demon world we were in before, where we found Petersen.
Isn't it...? When we arrive, this guy has no idea what we're talking about. Everything's been fine. He suggests we ask around the grand church. Okay...
When we near the grand church...
What's going on her--
What the heck is this?
Apparently, ever since the weird tower appeared, everyone in Holytown has been feeling totally drained of energy.
Back in the bar, someone says that Louis Cyphre told him that the tower thing isn't really a tower, but the end of Moloch's tail. Word. I guess that means we need to go to the demon world again! But the old way isn't going to do it this time.
What other way did we hear about accessing the demon world? Oh, right, the pillars. We're still missing a couple, but we got hints on the locations of both of them much earlier in the game.
First, the elder of the mutants. He, too, thinks the tower must be Moloch's tail, and gives us the Venus pillar. One down.
Remember this guy? He showed up after we beat Betelgeuse, and said that he had dug up the Jupiter pillar. Well, he never gave it to us before, but he will now that Siren's song is no longer keeping him enraptured.
Time to put these pillars to use.
Around the lowermost floor of the underworld are these shrines. If we place the pillars at each one...
This creepy face shows up.
On it is a spot for the Sun pillar.
Once it's placed, some weird stuff happens, and...
We end up in a different place of the demon world than we were able to access before.
After only one step, we run into this guy. He welcomes us to the land of Yesod, saying they don't often get visitors from Malkuth. Malkuth is what they call the human realm, he says.
It's not far before we come across a building. It leads to the town of Yesod proper. Inside, all of the standard amenities you'd expect of a town are present, manned by demons, except...
In one room, we run into Steven in front of a weird-looking stone. He doesn't say much aside from remarking that this is the first time we've encountered each other outside of the virtual battler. He says that we can use these stones just like terminals once he sets it up for us. And so he does. Thanks again, buddy-
Inside the bar, we meet someone who tells us about how the demon world is structured. It's divided into 9 areas, connected by 3 passages. We're currently at Yesod, the entrance to the demon world, which is connected to Malkuth - the human realm - and to 3 other areas of the demon world via the Yetzirah passage: Hod, Netzach, and Tipheret. From Tipheret, the Beri'ah passage can be taken to Gevurah or Chesed. The third passage, Atziluth, connects Gevurah with Binah and Chokmah.
It sounds kinda complicated, but it really isn't. It's also kind of like a perverted version of the Sephirot.
Another bar patron lets us know that Hecate guards the junction in the Yetzirah passage. Another helpfully informs us that she gets her power from the moon, which is a very good thing to know indeed.
There's not much else to do here after shopping and such, so let's head to the Yetzirah passage.
The path is very straightforward, until we get to Hecate.
Under orders from Lucifer, I'm not to let anybody pass. I don't need the powers of the moon to defeat someone like you.
This boss is REALLY easy. It only took a couple of rounds, even with just my two human characters. Sadly, not all bosses are quite this easy.
Hecate cries out to Lucifer and we get to choose which junction to take. The path to Tipheret is blocked at the moment, so we go to Hod first.
There's nothing in Hod except for a healing spot for Law characters and a boss.
Tiamat, as it happens. She's heard from Lucifer about us, that she shouldn't hold back against us, but is convinced she can beat us since we're only humans.
Oki bibuy. Harder than Hecate, but we still won.
Are you really humans? Such strength. I could have never held back...
We get the ayin key. Next!
This time we choose Netzach.
This place only has one building of interest as well.
Inside, demons have some interesting things to say. Apparently, Crowley here wants very badly to have a Sabbath. But isn't a Sabbath kind of a weird thing to have in the demon world, since demons don't need to be summoned?
Another helpfully informs us that the Sabbaths only take place during the full moon.
Crowley is angry, because Lucifer wouldn't allow him to have his Sabbath. He doesn't want to "hold it," which is phrased in such a way to hint at something kind of naughty.
At least he put up more of a fight than the others.
Apparently, he thought that he could have endless Sabbaths in the demon world. Sorry, man. Demon sex parties are kinda weird, anyway.
We get the Lamedh key.
Outside, this guy comes up to us. He says that Crowley can't be dead, because if he were, then he would not longer be living, since Crowley revived him in the first place.
To Tipheret!
The path has a door with two keyholes. We use the Ayin and Lamedh keys, and emerge...
In a familiar place. Indeed, this is the area of the demon world we were in before, where we found Petersen.
oh, it's kinda stupid but I'm glad to know that I can try it.
cj_iwakura
Member
SMT2 had some great atmosphere, made all the better by the remake's upscaling.
I like the music that plays in the 3D areas in the demon world. The older games' music isn't quite as good as what Meguro has done, but it still has its moments.
sazabirules
Unconfirmed Member
I think I just made a wrong choice and got a bad ending in Persona 4. I thought I had two dungeons left. I'll redo it since I didn't want to stop playing just yet.
Last time we were here, there was only one place we couldn't go to, because it was an endless abyss just like Valhalla ended up as. This time, when we try to head there...
Hmph. So you're Aleph. I can see why Lord Lucifer was so uneasy about you. I am Gomory, humble servant of the Great Lord Lucifer. He's ordered me to take you to Kether castle. Come with me.
Wheee.
We meet again, Aleph. I'm pleased that you've decided to accept my invitation... Hmm? Gomory brought you here without asking? My apologies. She wasn't too rough with you, I hope. It's little matter, however, as you could not have refused.
The great Lord Lucifer's...
MY invitation cannot be refused.
Oh snap. Get it. LOUIS CYPHRE. LUCIFER haa haa, how could anybody have missed that? (._. )
The rest of this dialog is much too long for me to translate line-by-line, so I'll give a summary.
Lucifer says that the archangels created the Millennium thinking they were doing what God willed, but they had actually stepped far beyond his will. Because of this, his intervention was inevitable, so while the whole thing was an inconvenience for Lucifer, he stood by and waited for God to take action. But instead of God throwing down with his fury, it was actually Aleph who slew not only the archangels but the false god they created. This is of course where you learn that the YHVH that we beat wasn't real at all. The archangels didn't know they were serving a false god, so it's all a little bit pathetic.
At any rate, Lucifer can't believe that a mere human managed to do all of this, so he thought that Aleph might actually be Satan, sent by God to deliver his retribution. Lucifer brought us here to determine the truth, and came to the conclusion that Aleph isn't Satan. Whew. But if Aleph isn't Satan, then he's still out there, and Lucifer is sure he's coming, because he's seen many signs. Particularly, Set's awakening, and Set is one of Satan's halves. If Satan awakens, bad stuff is gonna happen. Everyone's gonna die, in the human world and the demon world too. Lucifer is willing to put everything on the line to stop this. He wants Aleph's power, but he wants him to come to see him on his own accord.
With that, Gomory escorts us out.
All the way back to where we entered via the pillars.
Gomory is relieved that Aleph isn't Satan, and wishes us luck and goes on her way. But then...
Ah, so it was you.
It's Gabriel! Apparently Zain wants to speak with us, so he escorts us to...
Eden. A place fabricated to resemble the garden of eden.
Yes, I am sure that this is exactly what the garden of eden looked like.
Zain suspects we've met with Lucifer. He's worried that we accepted his offer.
He explains that Lucifer desperately wants to stop the coming peace, and he'll destroy Millennium to do so. Although the methods of the senate were poor, he still believes that the Millennium will allow people to live in this harsh world. So he wants to kill Lucifer and asks for our help.
That's a negative, buddy.
He then throws a temper tantrum.
You aren't fit to walk in Eden. You will leave this place at once. Just as Adam and Eve, you are hereby exiled from paradise.
Okay.
Now we're back on the street. Big deal. I'll cast toraport and go back to the demon world and act like that never happened.
Time to try to take that path we were taking before when we got interrupted.
Ah hell.
Louis Cyphre with wrong-colored hair has come to bid us farewell. 'Cause he's gonna kill us.
But not before transforming into Astaroth. He is surprised Lucifer ever thought that such a weak-looking dude could be Satan. And apparently for that, he deserves to die.
How many dudes do I have to prove wrong before they leave me alone?
He underestimated us. Which is a pretty common thing here in the demon world. Now he asks us to please restore him to his original form... the goddess Ishtar. Huh.
The real Louis Cyphre shows up. He's angry that Astaroth took his form, but he's also impressed that we were able to beat him. It makes him want our power even more.
Walk with me along the path of chaos!
No thanks!
He mad. Next time we meet, it'll be as enemies!
Welp, now that we've managed to piss off both the law dude and the chaos dude, let's go check on Set.
Set is beginning to awaken!
...I guess that means Satan is coming, huh?
No matter. Back to what we were doing before!
The once stagnant abyss now sucks our group in and we end up in...
This gross-looking place. Let's check the map...
Oh lawd. We're inside Abaddon.
Hmph. So you're Aleph. I can see why Lord Lucifer was so uneasy about you. I am Gomory, humble servant of the Great Lord Lucifer. He's ordered me to take you to Kether castle. Come with me.
Wheee.
We meet again, Aleph. I'm pleased that you've decided to accept my invitation... Hmm? Gomory brought you here without asking? My apologies. She wasn't too rough with you, I hope. It's little matter, however, as you could not have refused.
The great Lord Lucifer's...
MY invitation cannot be refused.
Oh snap. Get it. LOUIS CYPHRE. LUCIFER haa haa, how could anybody have missed that? (._. )
The rest of this dialog is much too long for me to translate line-by-line, so I'll give a summary.
Lucifer says that the archangels created the Millennium thinking they were doing what God willed, but they had actually stepped far beyond his will. Because of this, his intervention was inevitable, so while the whole thing was an inconvenience for Lucifer, he stood by and waited for God to take action. But instead of God throwing down with his fury, it was actually Aleph who slew not only the archangels but the false god they created. This is of course where you learn that the YHVH that we beat wasn't real at all. The archangels didn't know they were serving a false god, so it's all a little bit pathetic.
At any rate, Lucifer can't believe that a mere human managed to do all of this, so he thought that Aleph might actually be Satan, sent by God to deliver his retribution. Lucifer brought us here to determine the truth, and came to the conclusion that Aleph isn't Satan. Whew. But if Aleph isn't Satan, then he's still out there, and Lucifer is sure he's coming, because he's seen many signs. Particularly, Set's awakening, and Set is one of Satan's halves. If Satan awakens, bad stuff is gonna happen. Everyone's gonna die, in the human world and the demon world too. Lucifer is willing to put everything on the line to stop this. He wants Aleph's power, but he wants him to come to see him on his own accord.
With that, Gomory escorts us out.
All the way back to where we entered via the pillars.
Gomory is relieved that Aleph isn't Satan, and wishes us luck and goes on her way. But then...
Ah, so it was you.
It's Gabriel! Apparently Zain wants to speak with us, so he escorts us to...
Eden. A place fabricated to resemble the garden of eden.
Yes, I am sure that this is exactly what the garden of eden looked like.
Zain suspects we've met with Lucifer. He's worried that we accepted his offer.
He explains that Lucifer desperately wants to stop the coming peace, and he'll destroy Millennium to do so. Although the methods of the senate were poor, he still believes that the Millennium will allow people to live in this harsh world. So he wants to kill Lucifer and asks for our help.
That's a negative, buddy.
He then throws a temper tantrum.
You aren't fit to walk in Eden. You will leave this place at once. Just as Adam and Eve, you are hereby exiled from paradise.
Okay.
Now we're back on the street. Big deal. I'll cast toraport and go back to the demon world and act like that never happened.
Time to try to take that path we were taking before when we got interrupted.
Ah hell.
Louis Cyphre with wrong-colored hair has come to bid us farewell. 'Cause he's gonna kill us.
But not before transforming into Astaroth. He is surprised Lucifer ever thought that such a weak-looking dude could be Satan. And apparently for that, he deserves to die.
How many dudes do I have to prove wrong before they leave me alone?
He underestimated us. Which is a pretty common thing here in the demon world. Now he asks us to please restore him to his original form... the goddess Ishtar. Huh.
The real Louis Cyphre shows up. He's angry that Astaroth took his form, but he's also impressed that we were able to beat him. It makes him want our power even more.
Walk with me along the path of chaos!
No thanks!
He mad. Next time we meet, it'll be as enemies!
Welp, now that we've managed to piss off both the law dude and the chaos dude, let's go check on Set.
Set is beginning to awaken!
...I guess that means Satan is coming, huh?
No matter. Back to what we were doing before!
The once stagnant abyss now sucks our group in and we end up in...
This gross-looking place. Let's check the map...
Oh lawd. We're inside Abaddon.
cj_iwakura
Member
Wow, they really made Abaddon look creepier.
Bleh. P3 FES also didn't run too well on the PS2 emulator. Better than Nocturne usually, but had some pretty heavy slowdowns every time a Persona was summoned. Ah oh well, I'll accept that my laptop is not up to snuff or the makers of the emulator haven't found a really good way to handle multiple cores at this point.
Which I do have to wonder if I should just go through Nocturne or FES. For FES's advantage, I still need to beat the Optional Boss.
But anyway, played Nocturne a bit before going to bed. I'm only up to Shibuya right now, but I completely forgot that New Game + removes the fusion level limit. Thus, with some absolutely garbage fusions, I'm steam-rolling everything with a Level 33 Baphomet. Too bad the compendium is still way out of my price range (thus, no pierce Metatron or Shiva right at the bat). With that said, I can't wait to give the Matador a well-needed beatdown this time around.
Which I do have to wonder if I should just go through Nocturne or FES. For FES's advantage, I still need to beat the Optional Boss.
But anyway, played Nocturne a bit before going to bed. I'm only up to Shibuya right now, but I completely forgot that New Game + removes the fusion level limit. Thus, with some absolutely garbage fusions, I'm steam-rolling everything with a Level 33 Baphomet. Too bad the compendium is still way out of my price range (thus, no pierce Metatron or Shiva right at the bat). With that said, I can't wait to give the Matador a well-needed beatdown this time around.
Shorter update this time because there's so much to talk about.
This post contains what might be the biggest plot twist in SMT2, so don't read it if you don't want to know. I'm just going to summarize it via text, since it's just a bunch of dialog boxes, anyway.
Right, so we're in Abaddon. It's kinda gross and the framerate is sub-10 FPS here because of the heat shimmer effect that's going on. There's no treasure in here, just a series of warps and stuff. Eventually, we come across...
Madam. The Center entrusted her with Valhalla, and she turned it into a successful free area, where lots of people gathered. But they only wanted it so they could choose candidates for the Thousand Year Kingdom (the colosseum fights). Once Aleph appeared, they no longer needed Valhalla, so it was done away with. If only they'd taken her and left the citizens of Valhalla alone, she says. And with that, she disappears.
A couple of steps from where she is...
What? I thought we were in Abaddon? Wait
It's the Valhalla slums, completely intact! Wait, that means Mekata might be here. He wanted to tell us the truth, but we never were able to get back to him.
This is it!
Mekata! The senate did not want us to meet him, because he would tell us the truth. What's the truth?
Aleph was artificially created by the Center to be their messiah. After the destruction of Tokyo all of those years ago, the Mesian church took the opportunity to put their Thousand Year Kingdom plan into action in order to save the people, and Tokyo Millennium was built. Before the kingdom could actually come to fruition, however, they needed a messiah. They built the city and waited, but the messiah never came, so the senators took matters into their own hands. They created their own messiah - Aleph. They also created 4 others in order to push Aleph on the right path. Beth was created to be Aleph's partner. Gimel was to administer the virtual world, to test the Thousand Year Kingdom. Daleth was created to be the anti-messiah, destined to be defeated by Aleph in order to raise Aleph's favor among the people. And Zain was created to keep watch over Aleph.
But Aleph was different from these four. Rather than being genetically engineered, Aleph began as a fertilized egg that was strengthened in the lab, which was then placed into the body of a strong young woman who carried him to term. After being born, he was taken from the woman and grown in the lab. Using their techniques, they were able to age him in one day as much as a normal person would take 10 years to do naturally.
Hiroko interjects, "that... that can't be... Then..."
"Yes," Mekata says, "Aleph was your child."
From here, Mekata expresses regret for simply following orders passed to him from the Center, and most of all, using his own daughter as part of these experiments. Yes, Hiroko is Mekata's daughter. He regretted this so much that he got Hanada's help to erase Aleph's memories. He wasn't able to reverse Hiroko brainwashing in time, but he didn't expect she's go out looking for Aleph.
Sadly, time is up. Soon, everything Abaddon swallowed will disappear.
He gives us the MAG Presser, something we're going to need very shortly, and fades away. Hiroko is of course not okay with this, and shouts at him until the very last second.
So we exit the slums before they disappear, and we finally make our way to this area of Abaddon. He gloats about how his body exists in a dimensional rift, so we can't beat him.
But Aleph uses the MAG Presser.
And Abaddon's heart materializes.
This fight took a while, but as you can see above, the highest damage he ever did to me was 19. Not a problem at all.
Defeated, Abaddon realizes that it was us who defeated Michael. Michael had promised to turn him back into an angel if he swallowed Valhalla as asked. Sadly, that won't happen now.
Abaddon spits us out and dies-
This post contains what might be the biggest plot twist in SMT2, so don't read it if you don't want to know. I'm just going to summarize it via text, since it's just a bunch of dialog boxes, anyway.
Right, so we're in Abaddon. It's kinda gross and the framerate is sub-10 FPS here because of the heat shimmer effect that's going on. There's no treasure in here, just a series of warps and stuff. Eventually, we come across...
Madam. The Center entrusted her with Valhalla, and she turned it into a successful free area, where lots of people gathered. But they only wanted it so they could choose candidates for the Thousand Year Kingdom (the colosseum fights). Once Aleph appeared, they no longer needed Valhalla, so it was done away with. If only they'd taken her and left the citizens of Valhalla alone, she says. And with that, she disappears.
A couple of steps from where she is...
What? I thought we were in Abaddon? Wait
It's the Valhalla slums, completely intact! Wait, that means Mekata might be here. He wanted to tell us the truth, but we never were able to get back to him.
This is it!
Mekata! The senate did not want us to meet him, because he would tell us the truth. What's the truth?
Aleph was artificially created by the Center to be their messiah. After the destruction of Tokyo all of those years ago, the Mesian church took the opportunity to put their Thousand Year Kingdom plan into action in order to save the people, and Tokyo Millennium was built. Before the kingdom could actually come to fruition, however, they needed a messiah. They built the city and waited, but the messiah never came, so the senators took matters into their own hands. They created their own messiah - Aleph. They also created 4 others in order to push Aleph on the right path. Beth was created to be Aleph's partner. Gimel was to administer the virtual world, to test the Thousand Year Kingdom. Daleth was created to be the anti-messiah, destined to be defeated by Aleph in order to raise Aleph's favor among the people. And Zain was created to keep watch over Aleph.
But Aleph was different from these four. Rather than being genetically engineered, Aleph began as a fertilized egg that was strengthened in the lab, which was then placed into the body of a strong young woman who carried him to term. After being born, he was taken from the woman and grown in the lab. Using their techniques, they were able to age him in one day as much as a normal person would take 10 years to do naturally.
Hiroko interjects, "that... that can't be... Then..."
"Yes," Mekata says, "Aleph was your child."
From here, Mekata expresses regret for simply following orders passed to him from the Center, and most of all, using his own daughter as part of these experiments. Yes, Hiroko is Mekata's daughter. He regretted this so much that he got Hanada's help to erase Aleph's memories. He wasn't able to reverse Hiroko brainwashing in time, but he didn't expect she's go out looking for Aleph.
Sadly, time is up. Soon, everything Abaddon swallowed will disappear.
He gives us the MAG Presser, something we're going to need very shortly, and fades away. Hiroko is of course not okay with this, and shouts at him until the very last second.
So we exit the slums before they disappear, and we finally make our way to this area of Abaddon. He gloats about how his body exists in a dimensional rift, so we can't beat him.
But Aleph uses the MAG Presser.
And Abaddon's heart materializes.
This fight took a while, but as you can see above, the highest damage he ever did to me was 19. Not a problem at all.
Defeated, Abaddon realizes that it was us who defeated Michael. Michael had promised to turn him back into an angel if he swallowed Valhalla as asked. Sadly, that won't happen now.
Abaddon spits us out and dies-
So what are everyone's favorite (S)MT tracks? Gotta have some (more) music in this thread.
Edit: Now that I'm done with Meruru, I hope I can post some more screenshots of DDS soon.
Well, I love all the Persona soundtracks (do they classify as J-pop?) because they're so catchy but at the moment I am really into the DDS 2 soundtrack:
Battle for Survival, this stuff really rocks and is catchy as hell, especially from 0.37 seconds, where the guitar kinda starts "weeping".
Underground City, I'm not sure if it's the case but sounds to me that Meguro tries to capture the desperation of the people living in fear in this song, which turned out really well.
Because I'm playing Nocturne at the moment, might as well throw in two tunes of that game I love:
Labyrinth of Amala, my most favourite part of the game, and the music really helps appreciate that place even more. It's kind of dark with a sad twist.
Lord of the Netherworld. This is creepy and haunting because of the weird reverbed piano (is it a piano?) playing through that whole song, together with the Spinet sounds leading the song. Really awesome!
To continue with the celebrations, Shin Megami Tensei 2 is now available on iOS! First one was released back in February.
Both are Japanese-only. To quote the fatalistic description on the app store: WARNING! This is a Japanese language role playing game with no English translation now or ever.
Both are Japanese-only. To quote the fatalistic description on the app store: WARNING! This is a Japanese language role playing game with no English translation now or ever.
Well, that's pretty cool. The iOS port of SMT1 is all right, although the image quality is messed up due to the weird scaling they use, and the audio quality isn't as good as it should be.
I like how on that page, the images make a big deal about abilities being inherited during fusion, since SMT2 was the first game to do that.
I like how on that page, the images make a big deal about abilities being inherited during fusion, since SMT2 was the first game to do that.
Both SMT1 and 2 ports look like emulated ROMs of the GBA versions. Did they add any new features?
Yes, they're just the GBA versions. As far as I know, they haven't added anything. The list of additional features for SMT1 before was stuff they'd already added in the GBA version to begin with.
TurnipFritters
Member
Aeana does the PSX version of SMT2 have the bonus stories like the GBA/iOS versions?
Nope, those were special to the GBA version and they were the reason why I played the GBA version of SMT1 for this thread. I intended to translate all of them but I got lazy. :\
So Abaddon is gone, and we can finally enter the passage we've been trying to get into for what feels like ages now. It's the Beri'ah passage, and it leads to Gevurah and Chesed. We'll head to Chesed first.
We emerge and enter the only building that's available.
We've wandered into the temple of Chesed, the place where lost souls gather seeking salvation.
This place is an interesting side area. Why is it interesting? Well...
Some of the lost souls are familiar. This is Ozawa, from SMT1. He continues to curse the devil user who interrupted his reign.
Gotou from SMT1 is here as well. He too curses the undoing of his plans by the protagonists of the first game.
Even Red Bear is here, cursing the hero from keeping him from being able to go to the Center.
But there's someone in particular...
Beth. Why is she here? Why is she lost?
She's been looking for Aleph. She wants to do one last thing for him. She gives him the rest of his power and...
All of Aleph's stats go up by one!
Here, we can also fight Virochana, who is not necessarily evil. He helps guide the wayward souls here. But we beat him anyway, just 'cause the experience is nice.
He's the hardest boss fought so far by a good margin, but he gives an incredible amount of experience, which will help with continuing in the game without any demons.
Back through the passage, we emerge in the Gevurah area. This place is being kept down by Atavaka and his 12 shinshou (generals), so we're going to have to go through them in order to get to the Atziluth passage and continue on.
This part is really boring. There are 12 mini-bosses, each just only a slight step up from a regular fight. The first one is Vikarāla.
And when he falls, he just says "Is Vikarāla really defeated here?"
Repeat the same lines for...
All of these. I wasn't able to match them all up with the actual names of the 12 shinshou, so I won't even try to list them.
After that, we finally come upon...
Atavaka. You've slain all of my servants, the 12 shinshou, huh? But by lord Lucifer's command, you shall not pass.
I'm gonna pass.
To think that that I, Daigensui Myoou Atavaka, could lose to a mere human and his pets... Long live... lord Lucifer.
We now have access to the next passage, and it can lead to two places. One of which is optional.
This is the sea of Binah. It's where demons are born. However, without the goddess Ishtar, the cycle has been broken. There's a sidequest here to revive Ishtar, but you need to have Astaroth in your party. I spent a long time searching for a demon I needed to fuse him and eventually gave up. The reward is +1 all stats to both Aleph and Hiroko, so it's quite nice, but I don't need it. Too bad, though.
There is still one thing to do, though.
Grab Fury's hagoromo while she's bathing. You see, this has the special effect of concealing your alignment, which we'll need a little bit later.
I'll just take the other path to Chokmah now.
When we emerge, we come across a weird... almost phallic tower.
Once inside, we come across some doors that are sealed by Mara's magic.
Mara.
Indeed, at the top of the tower, we encounter none other than Mara himself!
He acknowledges our strength, but wants to test our wisdom.
He offers to give us 999,999 macca as a reward for coming this far. We decline.
He offers to raise our levels by 10. We decline.
Impressed, he offers us the world, with assurance that both Satan and Lucifer will bow before us. We decline.
He congratulates us on resisting the temptation, and now we fight!
Mara is a pretty tough nut to crack, but we came out on top in the end.
Unlike just about every other boss in the game, Mara has nothing to say once he's been defeated. Words of wisdom, indeed.
We now have the opportunity to teleport to Castle Keter.
Spirit of the right gate: This is Keter castle.
Spirit of the left gate: Lord Lucifer's domain.
blackpensnowbird
Member
i know it has been mentioned before but, that psx version of SMT 2 has such wonderful sprite work.
cj_iwakura
Member
Perfection.
cj_iwakura
Member
So what are everyone's favorite (S)MT tracks? Gotta have some (more) music in this thread.
Edit: Now that I'm done with Meruru, I hope I can post some more screenshots of DDS soon.
My favorite tracks?
Disco from SMT2 as said, also:
Shin Megami Tensei - Palace of the Four Heavenly Kings
Shin Megami Tensei - Ginza
Persona 3 - Battle Hymn For The Soul
Persona 3 - Want To Be Close
Persona 4 - Heaven
Persona 4 - Heartbeat, Heartbreak
Persona 2 - Kasugayama HS
Persona 2 - Public Facilty(Kismet)
Persona 2 - Holy Lance Knights
Nocturne - Cathedral of Shadows (Cursed)
Nocturne - World Map (Last Area)
Nocturne - Town Battle
Nocturne - Final Battle
Soul Hackers - Airport (Reality)
Soul Hackers - Spookies
Raidou 1 - Battle
Raidou 2 - Adventure
Digital Devil Saga - Muladhara
Digital Devil Saga - Svadhisthana
Digital Devil Saga - Sahasrara
Digital Devil Saga 2 - Divine Identity
Digital Devil Saga 2 - Battle For Survival
Digital Devil Saga 2 - Alive
Strange Journey - Chaos
Strange Journey - A Land Controlling Roads
I think that covers most of my bases.
Yeah, too much good stuff.
cj_iwakura
Member
It's nice, but I associate it with unpleasant events, or haunting ones at best.
Unpleasant events? It plays when you talk to Dr. Dark, and when you talk to the first pixie. Those are pretty cool!
cj_iwakura
Member
I thought it also plays when you run into Chiaki and Isamu again?
Heck, someone in the comments said it plays when
Chiaki snaps the Manikin's neck.
It does play there, kinda. It's a much slower version of the intro, just the first couple of chords. I don't really associate it with that though, I guess.
D
Deleted member 13876
Unconfirmed Member
I think I'm gonna start Nocturne tomorrow. I have some spare time coming up so I should probably take advantage of that.
Time to storm Keter castle. Hopefully.
Apparently, Lucifer has ordered them to not let anyone but agents of chaos pass through. Well, darn. But wait-
Masakado's katana begins glowing, and then
The gatekeepers disappear, and the katana crumbles to dust, leaving hihiirokane (a metal) behind. Metal, huh. I wonder what we can do with that.
These blacksmiths kicked us out of their studio before, but now they want to work with this kickin' rad new metal we found.
After 10 full moon cycles (zzz), we come back and they give us Masakado's katana again. This time, it's a weapon that Aleph can equip rather than a key item. And it's pretty darn strong.
Time to storm Lucifer's pad!
It looks pretty interesting inside, but sadly it doesn't even have its own unique music.
On our way up, we run into Beelzebub. He doesn't have a lot to say, just that he's heard about our power from Lucifer, and is interested in testing his against ours. We can refuse, but we'll accept because the experience is so good.
The battle is really, really long and difficult, but as you can see, the payoff was worth it.
Not only did we get 65535 experience points, we can also now fuse Beelzebub in the cathedral of shadows. Of course, I won't be doing that.
At the top, we run into Lucifuge. You might remember his name from earlier in the game. He was in charge of making macca. This scene is kinda pointless. He just reminds you of who he is, and then runs off to tell Lucifer we're here.
Lucifer: So you've come.
Lucifer laments at how weak humans are. Aleph has come this far, but still hasn't decided whether to join Lucifer or Satan. Now he stands ready to defeat Lucifer as an agent of neither Michael nor Satan, but simply as a human. "I, the great Lord Lucifer, shall knock you all down!" Okay, he doesn't say that. He says he'll remind us of what real terror is.
Lucifer is not easy. Even with a full party, he isn't easy, but with just two characters, he's quite rough. Hiroko actually died, which was the first time any of my characters have died in the game so far. Lucifer can and does use charm, and it's often quite effective. The battle took me a little over 30 minutes, which was the longest by far. I should probably get some demons back in my group, but I've come this far without them, so... eh!
Lucifer is shocked that we've grown as much as to be able to defeat him. He remarks that although we're strong, that we should remember that most humans aren't nearly as strong, and they need help in order to survive. It turns out that it was Lucifer who was having Moloch leeching the magnetite from the human world. He did this under the orders of God. God ordered him to collect the energy and proceed with complete destruction of the world. Lucifer humored him, but never intended to carry out the plan to its end - he was secretly feeding the energy to Kuzuryuu, and would use its power to liberate the demon world. God anticipated Lucifer's rebellion, however, and enacted an alternate plan, and that weapon now resides in Eden. Before he dies, he reminds Aleph that as long as people prosper, God will always destroy them, in an endless cycle.
We automatically exit the castle, and run into Daleth. He's flipping out about Kuzuryuu awakening, and he wants us to go kill it. Okay.
Once we get to the underworld, we encounter Steven. He admires Lucifer's forethought for working out a plan that can proceed even after his death, but we must defeat Kuzuryuu if we don't want to die.
Suddenly, Kuzuryuu bursts out of the nearby mountains!
I got really lucky with this fight. Kuzuryuu isn't super difficult, but he has a couple of dangerous moves, particularly status inflicting stuff. Thankfully, however, Masakado's katana froze him on the first turn and kept him frozen for a good long while.
Steven congratulates us, saying that he knew he made the right decision when he gave Aleph the demon summoning program. Uh huh. But there's no time to waste, we must hurry to Eden.
Apparently, Lucifer has ordered them to not let anyone but agents of chaos pass through. Well, darn. But wait-
Masakado's katana begins glowing, and then
The gatekeepers disappear, and the katana crumbles to dust, leaving hihiirokane (a metal) behind. Metal, huh. I wonder what we can do with that.
These blacksmiths kicked us out of their studio before, but now they want to work with this kickin' rad new metal we found.
After 10 full moon cycles (zzz), we come back and they give us Masakado's katana again. This time, it's a weapon that Aleph can equip rather than a key item. And it's pretty darn strong.
Time to storm Lucifer's pad!
It looks pretty interesting inside, but sadly it doesn't even have its own unique music.
On our way up, we run into Beelzebub. He doesn't have a lot to say, just that he's heard about our power from Lucifer, and is interested in testing his against ours. We can refuse, but we'll accept because the experience is so good.
The battle is really, really long and difficult, but as you can see, the payoff was worth it.
Not only did we get 65535 experience points, we can also now fuse Beelzebub in the cathedral of shadows. Of course, I won't be doing that.
At the top, we run into Lucifuge. You might remember his name from earlier in the game. He was in charge of making macca. This scene is kinda pointless. He just reminds you of who he is, and then runs off to tell Lucifer we're here.
Lucifer: So you've come.
Lucifer laments at how weak humans are. Aleph has come this far, but still hasn't decided whether to join Lucifer or Satan. Now he stands ready to defeat Lucifer as an agent of neither Michael nor Satan, but simply as a human. "I, the great Lord Lucifer, shall knock you all down!" Okay, he doesn't say that. He says he'll remind us of what real terror is.
Lucifer is not easy. Even with a full party, he isn't easy, but with just two characters, he's quite rough. Hiroko actually died, which was the first time any of my characters have died in the game so far. Lucifer can and does use charm, and it's often quite effective. The battle took me a little over 30 minutes, which was the longest by far. I should probably get some demons back in my group, but I've come this far without them, so... eh!
Lucifer is shocked that we've grown as much as to be able to defeat him. He remarks that although we're strong, that we should remember that most humans aren't nearly as strong, and they need help in order to survive. It turns out that it was Lucifer who was having Moloch leeching the magnetite from the human world. He did this under the orders of God. God ordered him to collect the energy and proceed with complete destruction of the world. Lucifer humored him, but never intended to carry out the plan to its end - he was secretly feeding the energy to Kuzuryuu, and would use its power to liberate the demon world. God anticipated Lucifer's rebellion, however, and enacted an alternate plan, and that weapon now resides in Eden. Before he dies, he reminds Aleph that as long as people prosper, God will always destroy them, in an endless cycle.
We automatically exit the castle, and run into Daleth. He's flipping out about Kuzuryuu awakening, and he wants us to go kill it. Okay.
Once we get to the underworld, we encounter Steven. He admires Lucifer's forethought for working out a plan that can proceed even after his death, but we must defeat Kuzuryuu if we don't want to die.
Suddenly, Kuzuryuu bursts out of the nearby mountains!
I got really lucky with this fight. Kuzuryuu isn't super difficult, but he has a couple of dangerous moves, particularly status inflicting stuff. Thankfully, however, Masakado's katana froze him on the first turn and kept him frozen for a good long while.
Steven congratulates us, saying that he knew he made the right decision when he gave Aleph the demon summoning program. Uh huh. But there's no time to waste, we must hurry to Eden.