#smt 4a

[vinnigami]

( ; ;) Can Aogami please take in Nanashi please? He needs a better role model than a rebellious Irish God.

he’s giving nanashi unrestricted internet access

[thornart]

Art for @gothamcityneedsme. Flynn and Nanashi from Shin Megami Tensei IV

[elendsessor]

to break up all the monhun picmix i've been doing, here's some mainline smt protags (except the space marine sorry)

feel free to use these for whatever! (icons, stuff to put in posts, etc.)

my horrendous picmix

[cake-apostate]

An idea I think would be fun is that centuries after the events of SMT4, Blasted and Infernal Tokyo both become evil empires. They idolized their version of King Akira, and took their stated ideologies to the limits with neither nuance nor restraint.

That's not to say that either Akira did a bad job; they did what was necessary at the time to save their people from disaster. It's just that if you took their actions without knowing that context, they would look incredibly evil.

So I think that their kingdoms would become evil empires if their future rulers continued their policies well beyond the states of emergency that spawned them.

Infernal Tokyo

Infernal Akira would seem like a cartoonishly evil overlord if you didn't know where he was coming from. Under his rule, humans are cattle to be eaten and bred, demons run a kind of protection racket, and he calls this equality. He even killed the previous king! And given that he's a coward and a weakling at the top of a society that values strength above all else, he'd seem a massive hypocrite.

Except most of the problems with Infernal Tokyo aren't his fault. Kenji was the one to start the demonoid/neurisher system; the worst you can say about Akira is that he didn't abolish it. And he couldn't. The obviously good step of freeing the neurishers would be disastrous; either the demonoids comply and starve, or they'd rebel openly, which would leave Akira powerless and the neurishers right where they started.

Akira found and enforced the minimum level of cruelty required for his current society to function. To many outsiders, that level is shockingly evil, but he's loved in his time because it's so much lighter than before.

Future generations would idolize King Akira, not unjustly, but it's easy for them to miss the point. He didn't draft a blueprint for some ideal society; he wrote laws and regulations to deal with the current disasters plaguing his city. Let's look at the specific orders he gave, and how future generations can screw them up.

Every district takes a census, and if they need Neurishers, more are sent there. That is how he ended both famine and war; districts fought over and hoarded Neurishers until he distributed them equally. It also sets up precedent for future kings to arbitrarily separate families or rip people from their homes.

Neurishers are mandated to be drank from every other day. In his time, that's a huge load off because they were drained every day, all day. But in the future, there might be so many Neurishers that forcing all of them to work half the time is seen as gluttonous, or maybe there's a future where Neurishers are required to work on top of providing Magnetite ever other day.

Some Neurishers are assigned to breed and make as many babies as possible. It's to ensure the survival of humanity, but even Akira's sorry about it. If the population stabilizes within his lifetime, I can see him easing back on this, but if he doesn't...

This isn't necessarily an order, but Akira's subordinates from Kasumigaseki wound up killing Demonoids who refused to follow him. That can easily turn into death squads killing those suspected to be disloyal.

Blasted Tokyo

Blasted Akira doesn't do anything evil. It wouldn't help his situation. But he does give Flynn and co. a speech about how he's going to use the demons from the Expanse to rebuild the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado; judging by the DLC, he did a good job building cities before the Ancient of Days blasted it back into desert.

Enslaving demons to build your city isn't any more morally objectionable than what your average SMT protagonist gets up to. What might get spicy is if future generations start seeing that anyone who comes through the portal is a 'demon' to be enslaved, even if they're human.

So this hypothetical evil empire would be, well, an empire. It rules over vassal states that are forced to give tribute, regards noncitizens as nonhuman, and the central state contributes nothing of value.

In King Akira's time, there was nothing they could produce. They lived in a desert and burned Pluto corpses for fuel. If they didn't steal, they'd have nothing. By the time the land is arable once more, agriculture might not be as easy or profitable as piracy, so the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado continues as an interdimensional demon summoning pirate state well beyond its need to be one.

On a semirelated note, Blasted Akira only gets a speech about his ideals and how he's going to reform the city, while Infernal Akira gets a whole bunch of NPCs saying what he already did and how. I think it's because we need a lot more assurance that Infernal Akira is doing the right thing, considering both his personality and the whole 'demonoid and neurisher' thing.

King Aquila of Mikado

Now let's reverse it with King Aquila. We know how Mikado turned out after 1500 years after he created the country, and we see his orders, but why did he make them? What context was lost to time?

Let's start with the part of the Samurai Code that forbids them from entering Tokyo, and how Aquila assigned the Minotaur as gatekeeper. From Nanashi's flashbacks, we know Aquila always intended for Mikado to unite with Tokyo, so why stop them?

Look at the plaque in front of the Hall of the Minotaur. It says, "Those who serve God Almighty: Thou shalt not proceed beyond this door." It sounds like Aquila isn't necessarily trying to stop the Samurai, but those who would follow the Monastery's orders. My guess is that he suspected that some fanatics would try to purge Naraku of the Unclean Ones, and the sign is for them.

I've heard a theory that the stark Luxuror/Casualry split was deliberately created to foster dissatisfaction, so that the Casualries would eventually rebel.

I also think that Aquila tried to amp up Mikado's food production to be much greater than their current population, to feed the future Tokyo emigres.

On a semirelated note, for fanfic purposes, I like the idea that Aquila was basically so terrifying that nobody wanted to speak ill of him after his death. He's honored as the ideal king because everyone's scared to write down his less than savory moments.

[sndplusbeinghot]

replayed smt 4 for a bit and felt inspired to draw the og sin character

Isabeau from smt 4!!

[lovely-hikari-cosplay]

Isabeau but Kaneko

_

Or… this semester, in my free time, I really started studying my Kaneko art books and wanted to try my hand a translating a Doi design to a Kaneko design

[tearsoftime0086]

antichthon my beloved they nerfed you so much in apocalypse :(

[jaccsonhyde]

[expousingwombat]

Comparing Metaphor to my SMT expectations: Job system and tone

Metaphor Demo thoughts: I can see people missing the creature collection/fusion over the long-term job system. I, however, prefer the job system. I like my teams to have people in them and not feeder fish. I will say that I think Persona 5 hit a nice middle ground by giving you full party members and demon negotiation. I prefer Digital Devil Saga's teammate flexibility, though. Metaphor feels closer to SMT Spin-off crew than the typical fanatical alignment reps in mainline Shin Megami Tensei. I'm not saying Metaphor has the same afterschool time management system as Persona. (Metaphor does have Persona's Social Links, sorry, the *Followers* system.) What I mean is that SMT is more religious parable than peers vibes. While there are always exceptions (SMT4/4A), mainline SMT NPCs exist to be radicalized towards one extreme. I mean, they literally merge with a demon, usually Satan or a similar Famously Evil Guy, or an angel, usually a high tier Famously Human Angel. In the spin-off games, like Digital Devil Saga, Raidou Kuzunoha, or Persona, the characters are quirky individuals trying to work together. There's significantly less tension between party members, and any rifts are eventually mended. NPCs are usually more social and part of your team if not your battle party. Either the writing team will later reveal there's a lot more polar thinking amid party members or you have a friendlier cast. That being said, it seems the creators drew from both SMT4's "literacy is a scourge that divides the rich from the poor" and Persona 5's "Rebel against those higher on the ladder that are scumbags" to make the main character functionally an Untouchable. Peak underdog who looks like a little cherub.

[mysunshine-youremoonlight]

Actuslky youre exactly the person to ask. How. How to smt. I read articles but I really have no idea how to get into the games ( I get persona now vaguely but I want the other loreee/lh)

hmmm okay. i THINK SMT games, in most cases, are self-contained. it depends on where you want to start!!!

SMT III: Nocturne is one of the more well-known titles, it was on the PS2(???) originally, but got a remaster for modern consoles a while back.

SMT IV + IV Apocalypse are 3DS games that are directly connected (altho u can play 4A without playing 4, i did that. you just miss some references and callbacks so like you can do it but its up to you whether you do or not.) so.

SMT V was originally only on the Switch, but then they relased V: Vengeance which is on all modern consoles and is basically just an upgraded and enhanced version of V (including a whole new route and shit) - you do get bonuses for getting it on Switch if you have played/cleared the og V, otherwise it's probably better for consoles. imo. i haven't played Vengeance yet tho, waiting till i get a ps5 to pick it up.

i never touched anything earlier than 3 in the mainline SMT games - and then you have the seven bajillion spinoffs.

Strange Journey is a 3DS game, undubbed, generally regarded to be pretty good. i own it but never played it.

i'm particularly fond of the Devil Survivor spinoffs myself, which are DS games remastered onto the 3DS. they are like, brutally difficult. the first boss can and WILL curbstomp you if you don't spec well. i love it tho it has such a fun story. i love atsuro. i haven't played DeSu2, but i have played a decent chunk of DeSu1. thats the one with kazuya.

there's also Soul Hackers which i've heard is good, SH2 came out a while back (at least i think its 2) and that was pretty well regarded iirc. there's other spinoffs but those are the ones i like. know.

also Devil Summoner exists and thats the one you'll see abbreviated as "DeSu" more often (w/ devil survivor getting "DeSur" but i like devil survivor more so it gets DeSu rights) but i have . not played that either.

ANYWAY. SMT is harder than Persona difficulty-wise (imo. it's kind of comparable to og p3? altho even p3 is a little easier i think) but i recommend starting with either Nocturne or Vengeance if you want mainline SMT - V does have references to 3 (and tbh most of them do, the demi-fiend (the protag of nocturne) is one of the like most popular SMT characters i think, along with his Pixie). 4 and 4A are also really good tho, so if you have a 3DS hack that bitch and grab Devil Survivor and SMT 4 and 4A. for me.

[vinnigami]

May I request Dagda in an argument with Aogami please?

I don’t think Aogami likes him very much

[1driedpersimmon]

I love all of your smt and dds drawings so much!!! I’m curious what’s some of your favorite things about each of the games you’ve played. Oh, and fav characters from each game too!

Heh ty!! Hmm soo let’s see…

Well smt (minus vengeance so far I’m not done with that yet) I’ve played 3, 4 (not 4a yet tho I have it), and 5 I mostly like cuz of the vibes and gameplay heh and im not too particular on any characters specifically so I like all the protags (which imo has the coolest designs in their respective games 🤔)

Mmm dds I think is one of my fav games ever and my only gripe about it was some grinds spots (as is most older jrpg) but the story the music the characters… *chefs kiss* uhhh I do love me Serph and Heat but I’ve a soft spot for Gale… and Cielo, and Sera, and Argilla, and- (everyone)

I’ve also played only the first Raidou game (love him btw) but otherwise I haven’t played any other smt games :3

[elendsessor]

btw if any game journalist or reviewer once vengeance comes out does that whole “it’s persona without the heart” shit ever again and use the bench as a way to back that up since “it isn’t like the social links” they should explode.

the protag and aogami’s relationship is a highlight of 5 and should be given more time to shine. vengeance seems to be doing this with the devil’s backyard thing but i’m also hoping there’s even more of those relationship development moments in the main plot. the trope of robots turning into father figures/actual individuals especially because of the protagonist is a god tier one. please let there be more of this in the future instead of some dating sim side mode just to get one ounce of character depth that never shows up in the main game outside of their introduction.

seriously i never got the argument when modernsona actively butchers the main cast in the main story unless it’s the main protag and the antagonistic force there was never the same amount of heart journalists claim there is

[cake-apostate]

I think it's kind of hilarious how SMT Apocalypse's beach episode ended with a custody battle for the MC's soul.

[lovely-hikari-cosplay]

Gotta be one of my favorite dubious forces 🖤