#idun smt

[superbninten]

i wanted to draw something before art fight and before ffxiv completely takes my soul away, so i drew my favorite demon from smt v, idunn~

[stormheehopanic]

[ya-kiri]

Nahobino is Nahobino.

[heta-magisch]

Golden Apple

[leylinefount]

[thebirdqueen]

🍏🌟

[Click for better quality]

[eerieayres-smt]

…And here's Idun, to round off my Inktober SMT V character series. A Norse goddess, she bears golden apples that grant the eater eternal youth.

Shin Megami Tensei V © Atlus Artwork © EerieAyres

[pathostozenith]

🍎

[yumei50]

Megami Idun from Shin Megami Tensei V.

Drawn both as hype because finally own the game & for my birthday this year (in May).

I haven't finished the game yet because I hate the thought of it being over soon + don't have money to buy the DLCs.

[elendsessor]

loki pulled a “we live in a society” moment and it actually made sense good job bucko

[lofi-bunni]

SMT+!Yuu, From Start to End.

Last one:

(I’m not a writer, I have no experience. I just needed to write about Yuu as a character in this AU. ALSO! Kinda angsty and not completely light hearted so…mind that, though it’s nothing too bad)

Yuu took a starting position at the beginning of the track. Their expression changed quickly from bashfully playful to a serious focus, like water instantly hardening to ice. They looked ahead to the track in front of them, focused only on the unmarked finish line. Their eyes narrowed and scenes of broken buildings emerged from the track field, memories of a rusty red sky and the smell of smoke. The crunch of stone and broken concrete underneath their feet as their mind blared only one thought, RUN.

Deuce had invited the prefect to the track and field club. He had multiple reasons to do so: They were his friend, they’ve proven to be somewhat athletic, and the team was always willing to welcome a friend to help with the monotony when they weren’t running. Maybe,if Yuu proved to be more, than they would invite the club-less student into their ranks.

The students took to Yuu well. Yuu was funny and gave off a warm energy. The same way an adult sibling would act around their younger teenage sibling when coming back for the holidays. Cutting through the banter was a question that caught the attention of both Yuu and the rest of the track team. “By the way Yuu, are you good at running?” Yuu looked over at the student for a second before their eyes slid up to the side in thought. “Hm..I’d say so.” The track team started to tease the prefect for their quick confident answer laughing along with one another. Then another, more baritone voice, once again turned the attention of the team. “Wanna prove that, Prefect?” The voice was Jack’s, with his normal serious tone. Though the raised eyebrows on his face suggested a more joking intent or at least a friendly challenge. Yuu looked shocked for a few moments before a smile crept onto their face. “Why not.”

Lined up on the track was Jack and Yuu. Side by side ready to sprint to the end of the track. 100 meter dash, easy and clear. At the start of the “race” was Deuce looking a mix between nervous and exited. As well as Jackfrost, who had come back to Yuu after having an adventure who knows where. The end held another student, ready to gauge the winner if the end result was a close call. Deuce cleared his throat, held up his hand, and started to count down.

3

Jack had his ears pinned back and an expression of focus on his face. He respected Yuu and believe them to be fairly athletic. But the mix between his species and training would definitely leave Yuu in the dust. He wasn’t going to hold back though, and belived Yuu wouldn’t either.

2

Deuce looked on at the two. He knew Jack was gonna give it his all, it wasn’t like him to hold back against someone he respected. But Yuu was gonna have to give it their all to keep up with the beastman. When his voice hit two he saw the expression of the prefect harden into ice cold stone. The same one he saw when facing the overblotted Riddle, pure intense neutral.

1

As reality and memory shifted in their mind they couldn’t do much but steel themselves and breath through the fog that clouded their brain. The light cheering of the students anchored Yuu to one reality as the sweltering sun above cut through visions of a red clouded sky. Idun had materialized next to Jackfrost somewhere along the way. Yuu felt lighter and safe in her presence. Their breathing calmed, they looked ahead at the track that shifted to burning buildings and back like a mirage in a dessert.

Go!

Then they started to run.

Deuce watched in awe silence as the prefect dashed from the starting line at what seemed like mock speed. Jack’s eyes widened for a split second before turning serious and dashing not far behind. Amazingly, Yuu kept up the speed not slowing down for a second. The students started cheering as the awe wore off and was replaced with adrenaline watching the two race down the track in record time. The student at the end of the track held out his arms with his palms open, a minor look of fear on his face as the two students came closer every second. Deuce started cheering too with the sound of He-Ho accompanying him while a cheerful blonde girl in a red hood started bouncing up and down like a cheerleader yelling in a language he couldn’t understand. But he stopped when the blonde girl had let out a confused noise. He looked over to the girl to see a worried expression on her face. “What? What’s wrong?” Idun looked over at the boy and back to the racing pair closing in on the finish line. “Ummm..ugh. Yuu isn’t- ugh” Deuce looked intently at the nervous girl barley being able to form words and felt a sense of nervousness creep into his spine. He spun his head over to the racers to see them right at the finish line. Yuu had slapped the hand of the student at the end barely a second before Jack as the club members erupted into louder cheers.Both Jack and Yuu were hunched over panting for air. Jack got up a second later and was handed a water while being congratulated. Yuu on the other hand was still hunched over, there was dark look in their eyes. Their gaze looked panicked and not all there. Idun quickly started to float across the field in distress while Jackfrost tried to follow behind with its stubby legs. Deuce started to run across the field as well, picking Jackfrost up along the way as students started to crowd around the prefect in worry as they stay hunched over, breathing heavier and eyes going wider. Jack quickly told the students to move away from Yuu and leaned down with a hand on their back, gently asking if they were ok. Yuu tried to say yes, but it sounded more like a gasp of air. When Idun got to the scene Jack had taken a step back as the girl raced up to the prefect in worry, quickly cupping the prefects face in her hands and whispering to them quietly. Deuce got there not long thereafter with Jackfrost in his arms. It quickly jumped out of them and ran clumsily to Yuu, grabbing their clothes and yanking slightly the same way a child would when trying to gain their moms attention, Jackfrosts cartoonish face contorted in worry and fear.

Idun moved Yuu’s forehead to hers and both closed their eyes. A light glow emitted from the touch and the prefects face had started to calm back into neutrality. Yuu let out a sigh and slowly moved their face away from Idun’s. Yuu stared down at the floor for a second or two, before bending down and grabbing Jackfrost into their arms, squeezing tight. They then looked up at the silent crowd around them. “I’m sorry about that guys, I’m not feeling the best right now. Mind if I get some time to myself?” The students quickly started to nod and walk off, all saying their reassurances on their way out. Deuce and Jack lingered behind though. Gazing at the prefect as they hugged the snowman closer, the creature leaning into the hug as Idun walked over to further lean onto the prefect in reassurance. Yuu smiled at the two before their gaze shifted to their worrying friends. Yuu gave a weak smile to them, then mouthed ‘Don’t worry’. Deuce and Jacks expressions of worry didn’t falter as they rejoined the rest of the team.

Oof… here have a dancing Idun for reassurance. You got this bestie.

[dailydemonspotlight]

Skadi - Day 115

Race: Lady

Aracana: Empress

Alignment: Light-Chaos

September 27th, 2024 (Posted Sep 30, 2024)

Among the most unique figures within Norse mythology, the most famous aside from the Æsir themselves are likely the jötunn. Many of the ranks of the frost giants have risen to pop-cultural infamy, such as Ymir or Grendel. However, one of the most baffling of the morally gray bunch of giants has to be today's Demon of the Day, and a fan favorite for many. This incredibly curious figure is none other than Skaði, commonly anglicized as Skadi. Of the many jötunn, Skadi is one of the most confusing, with a web of history and translations connecting her, somehow, to the Irish figure Scáthach, so without further ado, let's delve in.

Skadi herself is a rather simple figure, which is funny given how bizarre her portrayal in SMT is. As a jötunn, one could assume this giantess to be an antagonistic force, but she's a far friendlier face- she's a representation of hunting and the wilderness, as well as being the wife of Njörðr, the Norse god of the sea. Not much is said about Skadi, outside of her representation as a goddess of hunting and that, though she does have a major myth, being in the form of her heading to Asgard to get revenge for the death of her father, Þjazi. Now, if that name sounds somewhat familiar to you, I'd be surprised- but if you saw the name Thiazi, it might make more sense, as he was the giant who kidnapped Idun, who I went over in her own analysis.

While, predictably, kidnapping an Æsir will get you on the bad side of the rest of the gods, the younger Skadi didn't care- she marched all the way up to Asgard, tow in battle armor, and was met by the gods, who decided to play a game with her rather than entertain her quest for revenge- they offered her a husband in exchange for her condition of not attacking them, being to make her laugh. The thing is, Skadi wished to marry Baldur, but she was only given the ability to look at the feet of the gods who were set to be her spouse. She, naturally, thought the best looking feet would belong to Baldur, but, lo and behold, they belonged to Njörðr, a guy who just wanted to be left alone and hang out in the sea.

Displeased, Skadi went on to the next offering- to make her laugh- and Loki had an idea, as he always did. He tied a rope around one of his testes, and another around the beard of a jumping goat, and every time the goat would jump he'd yelp, causing her to laugh as he'd eventually fall in her lap. Finally, as a last thing to please her, Odin tossed Þjazi's eyes into the sky, where they became stars. The stars they became are somewhat disputed, but a common consensus seems to be that they were Castor and Pollux. Regardless, satisfied, Skadi eventually went to marry Njörðr, though the marriage went off with many hitches, and the two eventually went their separate ways.

Now, what does this all have to do with Scathach? Well, Scathach and Skadi both have similar names, similar roles, and lots of other similarities, being both representations of hunting in their respective cultures. This, eventually, led to a strange amount of conflation between the two, mostly led by one Barbara G. Walker in her book, the Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. The book drew a connection between Skadi and Scathach, claiming the two to effectively be the exact same figure, and while her claims have been disputed, this idea has permeated throughout culture (as seen with Fate Grand Order) as well as throughout SMT itself, wherein Skadi's design takes clear inspiration from elements of Scathach's. Overall, a pretty strange source for a stranger claim, but one that SMT took inspiration from regardless.

[party-pixie]

yo, owner of daily demon spotlight here, what'd you think of smt v? i wanna have tempered expectations for when vengeance comes out, so i was curious how someone who played it felt about it. ty in advance! :)

hi!! overall i really liked smtv tbh, at least enough to keep playing to get every ending (and then see the vengeance reveal THE NIGHT I FINISHED MY LAST RUN 😭)

i'll try to keep it a little vague in case you don't want too many spoilers but......there's still some spoilers lmao i'm so sorry but i at least tried to leave out the huge details or not explicitly say them

in terms of gameplay, it's really fun!! it's pretty difficult at first (i played on hard mode my first run but i've read that normal and casual can be challenging too i guess esp if you're new to the series) but it gets easier as you progress. a lot of people seemed to have a problem with the level scaling, esp for the shiva battle since he's a lv96 superboss (optional really but required for the secret neutral ending) but the bosses in the very final dungeon are like......lv80-85. even the final boss is only like lv85 unless you're doing the secret neutral route then he's lv90 i think. i didn't really think much ab the level scaling until i saw other people talking ab it but.......yea i had HUGE problems with shiva, i had to max out the level of my whole team just to take him on, but then it turned the endgame bosses into a total joke. i had a hard time with some of the other bosses too, the ones i remember the most being hydra, nuwa, lahmu, surt, and vasuki but it might be different on lower difficulties. the magatsuhi gauge + the skills were fun to use but the one you get at the very beginning that just comes with being a nahobino is.........kinda the only one you really need a lot of the time since you can just crit everything when you use it. it didn't really make all of the other ones obsolete tho since some were really good for survival like buffs/healing, it's just that it was a little too easy to get away with using the critical one for most of the time

oh, the unique skills were a good addition too, a lot of them were super useful like idun's, demeter's, and danu's since they all had good healing + extra effects. a lot of the new demons were good too, i haven't used all of them but the ones that i did use either really saved my ass or i just enjoyed having them on my team. although, i'm pretty disappointed the last 3 bosses aren't fusible and i'm ESPECIALLY disappointed that lucifer isn't fusible considering he was in apocalypse. he has such a good design in this game i'm so upset i can't have him on my team 😭 oh yea, and demons being locked behind an alignment is a little annoying but i don't really mind it much????? idk i feel like it gives the game a little more replay value, so i don't mind as long as it's not overly difficult to get. danu. inanna. and maria being locked behind certain alignments and ALSO being locked behind 70% compendium completion was a little annoying, but if you've got the macca to burn you can just summon directly from the compendium for new fusions until you get 70%, so it's not overly difficult to do. maybe a little tedious. i also liked the essence mechanic, but getting them was SUCH a pain since there isn't really any consistent way to farm them except for the aogami essences which are a little easier to get. i prefer the demon whisper from iv/a tbh but essences makes it easier to get certain skills on demons without having to do fusion gymnastics to get the perfect build

another thing is that there were only two real dungeons since the open areas were kinda supposed to serve as dungeons to a certain degree, but those two dungeons were........pretty underwhelming. the first one was really annoying cus it had a fan mechanic that would blow you to certain areas around the rooms and you kinda had to be careful with the timing on certain ones. it wasn't overly difficult to get around, it's just the fans that were a pain. the second dungeon was also the second to last area you go thru in the whole game and the setup was so ridiculous??????? like, it had a ton of long hallways and dead ends which is kinda to be expected but when you see a pic of the whole map for each section it's like "who the hell designed this?!" it's not even difficult to get thru, it's actually SUPER easy even with the time stopping doors gimmick which you can just......ignore entirely and the only consequence is losing out on some treasure. the layout is just weird and chaotic and seems like it might've been rushed cus it's also pretty empty, tbh both dungeons are

for the game's story..........oh god. it's pretty clear it was really rushed cus it was super underbaked. i didn't hate it, i actually liked the beginning a lot! but it falls off really bad after the second lahmu fight imo and the pacing just ends up all messed up. like the second lahmu fight feels like you're still early in the story but it's more like closer to midgame. and after finishing each major area, you end up going back to tokyo and having a meeting with your friends and director koshimizu at the research center, so all of those cutscenes look more or less the exact same since it's always in the same room and even the placement of the characters is almost the same. i've seen some people complain ab the lack of world building and while i don't think it has as much as iv/a did, a lot of the world building just ends up coming from talking to npcs and doing side quests instead of the main story. idk if that's good writing/design really but it's how the game ended up. there's also a few parts where they seem to be building up to something really big, but then the thing they were building up to ends up being mostly underwhelming. like the part where you meet yuzuru in da'at in front of the broken train, it feels like something is ab to happen, like a demon is gonna ambush them or they're gonna run into another friend like dazai, but then the convo ends and nothing happens. but it feels like something should've happened! and the pandemonic summit should've happened a lot earlier imo, idk i just feel like the placement of it is off cus after the summit, you're in the last main area and the end of the game is basically right around the corner. as long as you can beat the shit out of odin, zeus, and vasuki, you can get to the end relatively quickly, but it feels like more should've happened between the summit and the end of the game

i really liked a lot of the side quests tho! i think the khonsu one was my favorite and i wish he and miyazu didn't get sidelined so badly 😔 but the gameplay was really what kept me coming back for ng+ so many times tbh

the characters are all severely underdeveloped too, the only character that gets much at all is dazai tbh. yuzuru is off doing his own thing for a huge majority of the story and his sister miyazu is completely useless, getting minimized to being the chronically ill girl who just hangs out in the fairy forest the entire time. she get sidelined so badly which was so sad to me cus i ended up loving her, esp after the khonsu quest. sahori could've been given a little more, i wish she had a bigger role or something. tao also could've been expanded on a lot more especially considering her role in the grand scheme of things. even aogami doesn't get much of a backstory but it seems like they meant to try and touch on that but couldn't cus of time constraints. dazai is the only one that gets much of an arc at all, and it's decently interesting. i get that they might've wanted to try to do what nocturne did where you almost immediately split off from your friends and only meet intermittently, so their development happens offscreen, but i don't think this game did that very well. it also doesn't help that the world of v is so much more whimsical compared to nocturne

and oh god the ending...... i thought the cutscene where you finally ascend to the throne was beautiful so i don't necessarily hate it, but the way they tied the ending in with everything else was so obviously rushed and not well done. if you've played any of the other mainline games (mostly nocturne and iv/a are my frame of reference since i haven't played i or ii and haven't finished strange journey redux yet) it's really different in a way that i didn't really like. after you beat the final boss, the cutscene where you'd see or at least get an idea of the kind of world you created is so.....disappointing a little bit???? i won't spoil the endings for the other games in case you haven't played them, but the gist of them is that you're with your respective alignment rep and they're talking to you. but in v it's just.....you're getting narrated at by some guy! the whole thing is kinda just an info dump of how the new world turned out instead of getting to infer from the conversation with the alignment rep you sided with! like, really?? it would've been nice to see how the alignment reps felt about the new world at least

i was treating this as kinda a spoiler but tbh if you've played any other mainline game you can kinda expect lucifer to be the final boss or an endgame boss, but they basically used him as a huge infodump at the end?????? if you do the secret neutral ending he starts talking sometimes mid-battle about stuff about the universe that was never mentioned earlier in the story???? like, he talks about how the universe is doomed to reincarnate (which i know is par for the course in smt but still....) and that you have to kill him to break the cycle, but nobody else really mentioned that during the story. and i guess you could suspend your disbelief and say only he knows about it since he consumed the knowledge of the creator so of course none of the other characters would know, but that whole thing just felt really random, like the devs suddenly remembered that smt is supposed to have themes of reincarnation so they threw that in at the end. i don't think he mentions any of this in the other endings, and you don't even fight him in the normal neutral ending! and then after you kill him and see the cutscene about the new world, you find out in the post credits cutscene that none of that shit even worked!! so what the hell was all that for!?!!?!? i get that smt always has huge nihilist themes so the whole "you just did all of that for absolutely nothing cus we're doomed to reincarnate forever" thing isn't out of left field, but man seeing that post credits cutscene REALLY made it feel like i just did all that for absolutely fuckin' NOTHING. i'm kinda conflicted about it honestly, cus it was an interesting twist! i was surprised by it and the way they revealed it was really cool! but it also felt like it just diminished all of the world building lucifer just dumped onto us literally 10mins prior

the requirements for the secret neutral ending also felt really weird cus you're supposed to help all of these demons and it's basically showing you that even the demons aren't completely evil, but then the ending for that route is just "nah fuck all of them, this world is only for humans" and i just don't think it was a very good writing choice. the requirements make you feel like maybe there IS a solution for all of this conflict and maybe there is some kind of way to coexist with demons in a positive way, but then you see the ending and it's like oh......nvm then. maybe it turned out that way cus of time contraints, i don't know. i pretty strongly believe the secret neutral ending was meant to be a route centering around miyazu and khonsu considering the requirements to get it, but then the time constraints made atlus have to dump khonsu and miyazu off into a side quest and shift things around

overall, i'd say it was a good game! the gameplay is a lot more compelling than the story, but the problems with the story really only become glaringly obvious if you play it 4 times over like i did lmao. i've seen some people ask if they should play the game or wait for vengeance, or say that they got the game to play while waiting for vengeance to release and tbh.......i don't think it's all that worth it, if i didn't have the game already i'd just be waiting for vengeance since the story of the original game is still gonna be available, it'll just be a different path entirely. plus vengeance is supposed to have a lot of improvements both storywise and gameplay wise, so i feel like it's better to just wait. i'm really looking forward to it tho, i've been loosely following the trailers/news and it looks like miyazu will have more of a role and they've added a lot of cool gameplay mechanics 🥰

i wasn't expecting this to be so long, but i feel like there's a lot to say about the game even if it seems like there isn't. i just really liked the game despite all its problems and it's in really close second as my favorite after iv, so the release of vengeance makes me wonder if it'll top iv as my favorite. thanks for giving me a chance to word vomit ab it lol

[nevermindtheweights]

Random muse idea: Idun from SMT 5

anyways, a little busy right now but i shall be online in a lil bit ;3

[h34vybottom]

kk at my desktop laptop housetop croptop. basically the long of it is that doi's character design chops really seem to work best w/ simple and more realistic design principles. shit like trauma centre.

doi as a demon designer and the lead art director for main line just does not work. it's not even his fault. it's atlus's. they've turned main line into a generic nothingness factory where shit just looks like and is like every other product on the market. you know. the thing they always stood against. but persona 3 and 4 were their only actually successful games on the PS2 and that era has completely redefined and changed how the company operates (besides selling the same game again for the umpteenth time). doi is forced to fit into this mould instead of being allowed to make works that actually, well, work. and because smt3 is popular w/ fans and has grown a slightly larger than cult following globally (thanks in no small part to the reprinting of PS2 games (besides raidous) after p3 and 4 went fucking major); atlus has enforced their employees to make shit that appeals to everyone and everything, while making callbacks to whatever is the most profitable for the company. so we get awful shit like nahobino and also nahobino again but w/ the fucking tsukoyomi freak this time (and both designs are illogical and don't work because of course they don't). so we get shit like idun and fucking whatever that inanna design is supposed to be. shallow, placid bullshit. loosely based on their original stories and religions. literally idun is a fucking maid. just obviously made for otaku.

and that shit extends even further than just demon designs. look at how they completely massacred pressed turns and buff/debuffs. all of that shit was changed to be like modern persona. it's not about art. it's about neoliberal capital. even if that doesn't actually fucking work., it sells cuz smt and persona are known entities now. they're the sole fucking rpgs left. they'll sell off brand alone so who gives a fuck about quality. the life ruining game of capital is much more important than actually having anything to fucking say.

People made fun of Nanashi for having the fucking "there's no heaven" lyrics on his jump suit and now we have fucking Nahobino.

Maybe it's time to apologize to that twink