#megaten yhvh

[emilianatsuki]

Found Ichiro Dazai's reddit account

[martianmanmilker]

'EL ELOHIM ELOHO ELOHIM SEBAOTH'

'ELION EIECH ADIER EIECH ADONAI'

'JAH SADAI TETRAGRAMMATON SADAI'

'AGIOS O THEOS ISCHIROS ATHANATOS'

'AGLA AMEN'

SHIN.MEGAMI.TENSEI

[smt-smash-or-pass]

[foundfamilyhq]

[sorenblr]

THE END OF THE SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI II STREAM

TONIGHT, July 28th, 8:00 PM EST/7:00 PM CST, we're finally sheathing our Skrep in Shin Megami Tensei II! Join us for the grand finale as we slip the surly bonds of earth and autobattle the face of God! Tonight!!!

Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/streamingknowledge

Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@streaming_knowledge

[vinegar-on-main]

Edit: showed this to my friend and she said they look like official artwork. Op you are amazing.

@beantothemax @meme-boys-blog morning boys, have some peak

[elendsessor]

yeah we need to talk about devil survivor’s “law” ending aka kingdom of saints since THIS is what law endings should be. this is like. actual fucking peak.

and it starts off with the protag’s cool ass cape. the white fits super well. the catboy messiah is real.

(seriously though below the cut is a far too long sort of analysis of it so uh spoilers ahead)

i get that japan and many other countries have had a long history with abrahamic religions, particularly catholicism and christianity, being forced onto them and yeah no that isn’t cool. (people should be allowed to choose what they believe in, especially since a lot of religions teach tolerance towards certain beliefs. ngl every person who tries to push a religion onto others because “[deity] will hate you if you don’t” is straight up going against actual teachings and are going into cult territory.) i don’t think i need to say how megaten is very japanese, so it’s no surprise it has such a cynical outlook on abrahamic religions. heck i was raised in a christian family before forming my own beliefs and can confirm a lot of christians suck and don’t actually practice what was preached. but given how it—particularly with mainline—is very focused on morality and the player choosing the route they want to go with based on their experiences (or just because you wanna see a specific ending) it’s heavily noticeable that the law ending is always made to be the worst one. it’s either about giving up individuality to serve god, killing the non-believers, or both.

kingdom of saints is straight up the opposite of that. the cult aka the shomonkai is using their belief not in favor of the abrahamic god aka yhvh. they’re doing what they’re doing to force a belief rather than teach it, and the game makes a point to show that. a lot of the followers are corrupt and will use the comps given for power and control. the entire idea of “overcoming god’s ordeal” is, disregarding belberith manipulating the shomonkai’s founder into believing it’s a good idea, weaponizing people literally and figuratively, which is exactly what cults and extremists are out to do. they force the idea of there being only one right way to think, to do, to believe, and everything against that is not just wrong but poisoning others. in this case, they’re sort of indirectly making out those who don’t join them selfish enablers, or at least partially responsible of something out of their control.

only real issue with this is having the founder be said to have actually met with belberith in some form. a lot of people who start cults or groom others into being radical often claim to have heard [insert subject of belief system here] talk to them directly when in reality they’ve either made it up to further their pre existing ideas or misinterpreted, more often the former. that’s kinda the one real flaw in their story presence.

amane’s arc about finding her belief and breaking off from the shomonkai is well done. i mean it’s not uncommon, either—a lot of people are born into religious families and especially with devout ones are sometimes expected to blindly obey, yet it isn’t until they’re presented with the idea that there are alternatives or that, heck, they don’t have to align themselves to a religion or believe in something that may or may not exist. remiel only comes to amane because she was being used. that and she was possessed by jezebel so uh yeah that’s bad. only then, while also being exposed to the actual suffering of those in the yamanote circle (which we can assume she has had little to no contact with given how cults often alienate themselves from others to preserve their beliefs/keep others from questioning them), does she decide to follow what she believes is right. that right to her is to help the people, and she’s being given the opportunity. she doesn’t become a soulless devotee, either, since she does feel remorse for her father, the founder of the shomonkai, despite how big of a piece of shit he was. she’s also still new to this whole god is real thing so it’s not like she was constantly surrounded by bibles and churches.

god isn’t depicted as perfect, either, or wanting perfection. the reason for the lockdown was because first, it was inevitable demons would run loose. they popped up long before the events of the game. second, it was people bringing them into the world. demons are born of human desires, and devil survivor does illustrate that. thus, god puts them through an ordeal. the entire point of ordeals in religious texts is a test of humanity’s willingness to overcome temptation. notice how the people scouted out are just average people given a task and it’s their choice if they go through with it or not. while asked by god to build an ark, noah could’ve just saved himself from the flood, but even with his family treating him horribly, he saved them, too. there is, though, the constant flaw of who gets affected. not everyone is full of sin, mainly little kids, and this also affects other living things.

the tokyo lockdown was an ordeal and it is treated as flawed. while humanity brought it upon themselves, as sins are born of desire being acted upon even if it does hurt others, there were all sorts of things dragged into it unwillingly. tourists, children, and heck the local flora and fauna, pets, etc. were going to be harmed despite not even being able to sin, not to mention how tokyo is the one carrying japan’s economy and is just the first thing that comes to mind when people think of places in japan. if it goes down, so does the entire country.

however, this was also to show what people were willing to do in such a desperate situation. would they try to seek an end, help others, or would they take advantage of the lockdown? those trying to break out were ultimately running away from the problem, not addressing it. the solution also didn’t have to be picking out a messiah—the protag is given a choice how he wants to use his power if he becomes the king of bel. he can make everything go back to normal and that would be a good outcome. choosing to stand before god is just helping spread the word and making it so the chances of another demon outbreak goes down.

in general, after knowing god exists at the end, it was up to the people what to take from that. did they all want to rise up against him? live in constant fear? work to better themselves? the ending doesn’t truly speak for all people, rather just a generalization of what happened afterwards. it’s pretty open ended in that regard, but humanity still is gifted free will, just now with the knowledge that god is real and is watching them.

then comes the comps. in a way, they’re a metaphor for how people use technology. the biggest issue with the internet is the spread of information: it’s a double-edged sword. false info can be spread just as easily as true facts.

i mean this bit sums it all up.

the comps get spread like wildfire. people use them to help and to harm, and some don’t even know the risks of a comp, leading to further harm. comps aren’t inherently bad, rather it’s who uses them that makes them harmful.

i also wanna quickly talk about funny lizard man naoya aka cain since it’s pretty interesting how he’s handled.

in every route, he pretty much is the guy to manipulate the gang all to get the protag aka abel to do what he wants. what he wants to kill god and the only bel he could use to do that is abel. while the idea of going up against god is badass, in this case, it does feel a bit more wrong as opposed to other “let’s punch god in the face” endings when you get the context. cainaoya only hates god because he felt as if god picked favorites and because he punished him for becoming the first murderer ever. yeah its okay to be a bit jealous but there were many different ways he could’ve handled it—asked god directly if he loved him, distance himself from abel and god, literally anything that doesn’t involve killing a person. the only reason why he keeps getting reincarnated is because he’s shifting the blame as opposed to trying to understand what he did wrong. it’s a really nice change of pace as opposed to the generic “lucifer hates god bc god big stinky :(“ conflict.

so yeah tldr the typical law alignment scenario’s only good rep is desu1’s, mainline’s writing on that front is bad and has to step up its game, you get an arguably cooler cape if you side with god as opposed to lizard man (but i mean protag does look really good with the black cape too-)

[eleemosynecdoche]

Had a flash of insight about Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, which despicably now must forever be qualified as Soul Hackers 1, today. Namely: Nemissa is Hitomi's online persona, symbolically and more than a little literally.

Nemissa talks as if she's been in Hitomi for much longer than the... maybe single day she's been in Hitomi for by the time the clothes shopping event happens. She's "always" hated Hitomi's wardrobe for being too drab. She talks to the other Spookies extremely familiarly. Nobody else can tell that Nemissa looks extremely different from Hitomi, bar perhaps her hair color changing. Nemissa's magic spells are determined by what the player thinks of Hitomi.

The simplest explanation is that Nemissa is what Hitomi wishes she was- bolder, able to dress how she pleases, strong and confident. Overconfident, a little bit childish or chūnibyō, because Nemissa, like Manitou, is a mirror, or perhaps a computer system. You get out what you put in. (And because Manitou is being accessed by so many people through Paradigm X, their sprite is a "golden human" like YHVH, Yaldabaoth, or Mem Aleph, being literally torn apart. Revealing snaking cables beneath.)

Of course, Soul Hackers as a text is frightened of the Internet and its possibilities, so a peaceful coexistence between the online handle/persona Nemissa and the meatspace self Hitomi isn't really possible within its spaces.

The overall paranoid stylings of the first two Devil Summoner games probably dictate some of this as well- the supernatural presence is associated with a grand conspiracy to unveil the gruesome historical foundation of the present day, and by integrating and accepting that foundation, the supernatural fades away. Megaten games are almost relentlessly secular-humanist in outlook, to the point where it can sometimes feel a little bit like being religious in their cosmology inevitably means being a puppet of dark forces.

[thebladeblaster]

Battle Royale Poll 2 Electric Boogaloo! Megaten Protags With Steroids!

This one is based on a discussion I had with @faketokufan during the original poll.

Hypothetical Nahobino Vishnu-Flynn-It’s based on the idea that if Flynn became Vishnu-Flynn post Apocalypse if he did he would become a nahobino. That would make the Vishnu-Flynn in this poll much stronger than he was in Apocalypse. Also he actually has all Flynn’s gear, abilities, and Flynn is in control so he’s fighting better too 🤣. Basically it’s the idea of a peak Vishnu-Flynn.

Rules:

-Explain your position or your vote is meaningless

-One demon each

-Composite versions of the characters

-They have all their equipment

Last Bible protag is not in this poll since he would obviously stomp.

Part of the reason I didn’t vote last time was because I honestly wasn’t completely sure who would win😅. But, I have a more solid answer this time.

I think a peak Vishnu-Flynn would be an absolute monster. Flynn is strong enough without any support. He kicked the strongest Lucifer (pre-SMTV)’s ass even after he transformed. He fodderized Krishna who is supposed to be on the same level as that Lucifer and casually jumped a WHOLE DIMENSIONAL TIER against Sanat and Ancient of Days (an avatar of YHVH) as a normal human.

You add a stable version of Vishnu-Flynn (not being sabotaged from the inside) and being a true god…😳. Like Krishna was confident about them soloing YHVH once they got their shit together. We know the Nahobino power boost is insane since characters who are basically equals can literally get instantly killed from the transformation of a Nahobino.

Not to mention, Flynn actually fighting would definitely be better because Krishna is probably just flailing those swords around like baseball bats 😅. Anyway considering a non-Nahobino Vishnu-Flynn was supposed to defeat YHVH a Nahobino version would absolutely trounce him. Even just a non-unstable Vishnu-Flynn should be at least Satan level considering Krishna is supposed to be in the same league as Lucifer and Merkahbah while Flynn is comedically stronger than Krishna.

So safe to say even just a non-disfunctional fusion should likely be way stronger than Satan realistically.

The Nahobino boost would just make Vishnu-Flynn become ridiculous. Along with Flynn’s own ridiculous growth rate and Vishnu-Flynn’s rage amps they would be near unstoppable at their full potential.

Since he’s keeping his equipment too he can give other characters weaknesses with Masakado’s katana.

Vishnu-Flynn also has various piercing moves on top of that.

If not him then Nahobino himself would win.

[vinegar-on-main]

@meme-boys-blog

December 1 2023

it’s okay jouhei. it could be worse.

[emilianatsuki]

When god is like YHVH, even law fans hate him.

[lostbizkits]

for the opinions 14, 16, and 20 perhaps teehee

I gotchu bestie

Best soundtrack?

Ah fuck this is a hard one… the Manipura theme, spiders string 2nd movement and Da’at Taito go hard af.

First SMT game?

Megaten in general p5r unfortunately but SMT smt it’s nocturne. I’m still not done with that bastard I just reached ginza

What do you want from SMTVI ?

Gameplay wise I say keep it like V, it was crispy, slick and just generally great and I didn’t get rawdogged every 3 steps. Maybe add in technicals I wanna see how that goes. And bring back mido he’s so silly.

Story wise, they shouldn’t be cowards ig. Let us make the choice to go law chaos or neutral pretty early, like mid game. Also I’m kinda tired of YHVH for law, make it some other person that might be fun. I feel like they could explore other faiths and mythologies and it’d still be really fucking cool. Make something as earth-shatteringly depressing as Strange Journey again.

For characters,,, idk let doi go bonkers I think he deserves it.

[pyromancerofaronons]

So I was playing Persona 3 FES.

I got sent to summer school (for some reason) and the red haired teacher with glasses is lecturing about shit. He talks about the Tarot cards and what all the major arcana mean. Makes sense, kinda important to the game's themes. He then starts talking about the study of the Hebrew texts and he says something that at first glance was a little odd. It looks like he's trying to sound out a longer word.

He said the widely accepted pronunciation of YHVH, AKA the abrahamic god and considering this is Megaten I'm losing my mind over this. Is he Stephen? Why is Stephen teaching at a Japanese high school? Sir????

[eirikrjs]

Do you think the “YHVH/Abrahamic religions vs everyone else” angle is overused?

Of course, it's been three games in a row. They literally killed YHVH off in SMT5 and they still couldn't get away from this. They wanted to copy Nocturne so bad but they couldn't quite leave the Maniacs version behind, it seems. This is just how things are now.

I'm just shocked that, looking back, now that we know Mem Aleph really is just an original character with nothing to do with Yahweh, Strange Journey managed to avoid the cliche. Thanks, Barbara Walker!

[sorenblr]

Honestly as someone who did edits on the wiki back the. I wasn’t sure if that was true myself, mostly as there was…stuff of dubious validity on some Japanese websites that did mention those games.

this is the true, unblemished nature of online. wikis are still full of bullshit but it's mostly like, specious interpretations. you don't get a lot of outright hoaxes these days. makes me nostalgic