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dailydemonspotlight · 9 months ago

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Day 15

Race: Oh god

Alignment: Oh fuck

April 9th, 2024

After a few hours of rigorous training, I think I’m ready. Day 15 is a special day, after all. Welcome to the all-for-one Jack Frost special!

1. Lucifrost

Race: Herald

Alignment: Light-Law

Lucifrost is a very strange Frost with a surprisingly intricate design, a demon that only appears in the Demikids and Devil Survivor games, typically as a mid-late game boss. Unlike what one might expect, he isn’t a frostified version of Lucifer- no, his backstory is far more fun.

Lucifrost once was a Jack Frost, but he was exiled from the Frost family due to betraying them, much like Lucifer did to the Angels. Jealous, he wandered down to hell, eventually finding himself in the final layer, wherein he saw the frozen Lucifer in a lake of tears. Rather than feel pity, though, Lucifrost saw an opportunity… for profit. Frozen Lucifer was a perfect idol for the ice-obsessed fiend, who began to try and impersonate the fallen angel, eventually returning to hell after achieving a perfectly angelic form… only to see that Lucifer had long since departed. Likely despondent, he wandered aimlessly to find the king of demons for all of eternity, ending up crossing paths with the DemiKids and Devil Survivors protagonists along the way.

While his backstory is silly, his design is fantastic, an interpretation of an angelic Jack Frost that makes him far more adorable than the Morning Star could ever be.

2. Frost Ace

Race: Genma

Alignment: Light-Neutral

The legendary hero of the Frost Lineage, Frost Ace makes himself known as a mid-game demon who exists as a parody of superhero media and, more specifically, tokusatsu sentai shows like Super Sentai.

Frost Ace mostly works as a 'good side' equivalent to Black Frost, being a heroic transformation that any Jack Frost is implied to be able to take to grow in power. I personally like to see Frost Ace, on top of that, also serving as a general in King Frost's army, as it adds on a bit to the whole 'Frost Kingdom' theme.

You getting tired yet? I'm nowhere near done!

3. The Frost Five!

Race: Frost

Alignment: Five

These bozos are each based on separate frozen deserts, save one, which is a cocktail. In order, Blue Hawaii Frost is based on the Blue Hawaii cocktail, Lemon Frost is based on lemon-flavored shaved ice, Melon Frost is based on melon-flavored shaved ice, Strawberry Frost is based on strawberry-flavored shaved ice, and lastly, Milky Frost is just ice cream.

Ahem.

4. Hee-ho-Kun

Race: Student

Alignment: Broke due to Student Loans

Less of a specific demon and more of a recurring character, Hee-ho-Kun is a demon who originates from SMT if... serving a minor role as a friendly Jack Frost who can become an optional party member, apparently enjoying going to school.

Unfortunately, in order to pay his college bills, he had to open a shop! In SMT 3: Nocturne, Hee-ho-Kun makes his grand return as a shop owner in Shibuya, though later finds his calling as a Black Frost, becoming an optional boss of the Kabukicho Prison area after being cleared, then becoming a recruitable party member once defeated, appearing in the Labyrinth of Amala.

Lastly, Hee-ho-Kun manages to get a girlfriend! In Megami Ibunroku: Persona, aka Revelations Persona, he appears at St. Hermelin HS as a student after it is frozen over as a result of the Snow Queen quest. Let's hope he got the education he hoped for, especially given his acquisition of a girlfriend!

Finally. The Jack Protags.

Ah, they truly are great. Let us bask in their brilliance lest we forget the greatest frosts of them all. Raiho is a personal favorite of mine.

Also, Jack Frost somehow got a Demonica? Enter Demon-hee-ho, a recurring boss in the Strange Journey games. Admittedly, I don't know much about SJ, but I find his inclusion to be really silly, so he gets a special shoutout among his protag contemporaries.

...And that's that! I hope you enjoyed the Jack Frost miniseries. I'm missing a few Jack's, such as the Petite Frosts, but I'm honestly just tired of doing Jack Bros. stuff. Let me have this break. Either way, though, the Frost blockade has been cleared. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming once our snowplows come by.

#shin megami tensei #smt #megaten #persona #daily #smt nocturne

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wandringaesthetic · 2 months ago

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@novelistparty since you asked me a bunch

how's the music?

A+. Grandiose and bombastic or weird and threatening and bombastic, mostly, with a few more chill tracks.

how "anime nonsense" is it on a scale of 1 to 10?

"Anime nonsense" in terms of "punching the bad guy while yelling about our ideals"? 12. "Anime nonsense" in terms of, like, weird fan service or, like, I don't know, anime filler episode content? Pretty low. You can cook and go to o the hot spring with your buddies, though, so like. Around a 2.

can you pet the dog?

You can dog sit the only dog that I am aware of in the game

can you romance any of the characters?

No. But one of your bond/social link characters has a pretty serious crush on you that you can choose to respond to reciprocally and there's at least one other character that might be flirting seriously and another that is flirting unseriously. I don't want to "praise" the lack of romance because romance gets a lot of flack in video games especially, but it feels like the correct choice here. Meta (I named him Meta) is just a lil guy he is baby and we are comrades striving for a better world etcetc that is not why we're here (no one being here to chase tail is also a sort of fantasy)

Are there any good "little guys" in it?

Surprisingly complicated question. I guess you mean like mascot characters? Gallica (your fairy buddy) is sort of a little guy and imo works as a good face for the game.

There seems to be an effort to establish the little tooth enemies as mascots for this game? There are some little pins of them as part of the limited edition

And I mean I don't know I'm not really feeling this.

They're technically a subset of the "human" type enemies, i e the Boschian horrorterrors, and as "what is your favorite 'human' design?" has already been a popular discussion question among people playing this game I feel like their most effective "little guys" here are actually their big, horrifying guys.

Atlus has always been kinda off in the mascot department imo? Jack Frost is the standard cameo character across all the SMT games and he does show up in Metaphor

But versus slimes or chocobos or what have you, this is just not a strong design. Feels like they're trying to make it happen a little too hard. And gosh, let's not talk about Morgana or Teddy.

Also feels like the archetypes should also be more iconic than they are, especially since they seem to be going for some kind of Vision of Escaflowne high fantasy power armor thing with them, but they kinda all blur together in my mind.

Also a question you didn't ask but I'm going to answer because I know this is something you appreciate:

The fonts/numbers/etc telling you you did good are great. That "unscathed triumph" font is some kind of 70s advertising font that I can't quite place. The gold color for a mastered archetype is excellent.

And a minor (to me) thing I know you don't like:

characters repeating stuff in battles a lot. This ranges from the baller ("Be neither timid nor arrogant") to the neutral ("to the rearguard!" "to the fore!" "Personal space!" "Guarding seems the wisest move") to the kind of really irritating (Gallica telling you in unnecessary panic "[character's] in trouble! Somebody heal him!!" &etc)

Take that as you will

I have finished Metaphor Refantazio ask me anything

#haha i made a joke there #metaphor refantazio

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sparkerinparadise · 3 years ago

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rating every jack frost iteration that i can think of off of the top of my head rn bc sleep is a myth

SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI: i have never touched an atlus game but oh my god look at him. he’s just a little guy and it’s his birthday!!! i love his fun hat and how small and round he is, and his :D face with little fangs. apparently he’s also a demon??? that gives you a gun in one of the games?? that’s always a plus!! i don’t like the fact that he’s british though. 10/10 instant improvement to any game

FROSTY’S WINTER WONDERLAND: this movie is very much a product of its time w how it treats crystal and is VERY much trying to capitalize off of the success of the original frosty, but idk i still think it’s kinda cute. but this isn’t rating the movie. this is rating jack frost. here he is a silly little man!! his whole spiel is that he’s jealous that frosty is more popular than him so he wants to murder him. y’know, typical cartoon villain stuff. don’t worry though, he gets defeated by the power of friendship and a Kiss from a Cute Snowlady, and decides he’s going to make winter last forever for frosty and his new wife crystal bc they’re probably the first people to validate him in years. wow. what a guy. also his design’s excellent and his voice sounds exactly what u think it sounds like, it’s great. 10/10 i want to see him and smt jack commit crimes together

RISE OF THE GUARDIANS: here he is. the tumblr sexyman himself. i don’t remember anything from this movie except that no one can see him and he’s sad about it, i think. also he has a big magic stick and i have no idea what it’s actually used for. ice, i think?? but yeah, he is literally just some generic modern-looking white boy. with a big stick. i don’t understand the appeal, but then again i’m a lesbian and i don’t own an air fryer. 2/10 best and only anime i’ve ever seen /j

JACK FROST (1979): “wait a minute, u already put the rankin-bass one on here!! they’re the same character!!” shut up this is my list, i get to do what i want. anyways i literally just finished watching this movie for the first time and i thought it was cute. his outfit’s changed a little bit from winter wonderland and the colors here are a little too similar for my taste but it’s still a SUPER solid design. like, a pointy hat, tunic, boots AND leggings?? too much power. he is significantly less bastardly here but he’s still super silly and nice. we love to see it!! 8/10 i want in on that groundhog con deal

SANTA CLAUSE 3: i watched this movie several times as a kid, and i couldn’t tell u for the life of me why. i was actually kinda surprised when rewatching some clips of this guy on youtube! his design’s... okay i guess, but his lines are so corny and his acting is so over-the-top that he actually ends up being kinda funny. anyways he wants to ruin santa's life so he can…. travel into the past and sabotage santa’s backstory?? so he can be capitalist santa??? i don’t remember how any of that worked but it was bc of some weird magic law i think, because its the fucking santa clause. anyways uhhh.... he exists!! that’s all i can really say about him!! 5/10 eat the rich

FROSTY AND RUDOLPH’S CHRISTMAS IN JULY: gee rankin-bass jack, how come YOUR mom lets u have THREE designs??? i like what they were trying to go for by combining the first 2 designs they made, but oh my god i literally cannot stand to look at him. i don’t know if it’s just his absurdly long neck, but that head just does NOT look like it belongs on that body. what were they thinking. 0/10 u had one job

JACK FROST (1998): an irl friend actually told me about this one and all i gotta say is... what the fuck, sarah???? i’ve read the wikipedia article and like. this jack’s a regular dude who’s a musician w/ kids, right??? and uh... he just fucking dies. and comes back to life as a snowman to help his son move on from his death. and then he dies again. i don’t know how anyone could take something like this seriously. this movie doesn’t even sound real, it’s like someone based it off of a really fucked up fever dream or something. anyways 4/10 i don’t have anything clever to say about this

#bee.txt #long post #i feel like this is revealing way too much about my taste in media and i hate it lol

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puniper · 6 years ago

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Thoughts on Hero and Banjo in Smash? Also, anyone you'd like to see for the final 2 DLC character slots?

i’ve never played Dragon Quest so I don’t have much to say about him outside of something I said earlier to a friend on discord

as for Banjo Kazooie

HOLY SHIT

i honestly never thought i’d see even a trace of Banjo on anything nintendo ever again but they’re here…they really are here ;__;

as for the 2 remaining ones..IDK…I still want a proper SMT representative like Jack Frost (Joker’s fine but like..he’s only relevant to persona 5 rather than smt as a whole lol) but I know that won’t happen

other chars I have in mind.. maybe Travis Touchdown, Jibanyan (or really any character from a Level 5 game) uhhhh…..I honestly don’t have any particular char I want in cause the roster is pretty alright to me already tbh

#shiyonasan

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eirikrjs · 6 years ago

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How is it that the central aspect of the MT franchise is so overlooked compared to Pokemon or Digimon, seemingly both within the fandom and internally at Atlus?

I was talking about this with @joshquixote a bit, who mentioned this relevant quote from Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri from November 1999:

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2040095,00.html

Tajiri: It’s interesting, because in Japan, everybody goes for Pikachu. In the U.S., the characters Ash [Satoshi in Japan] and Pikachu are grouped together. American kids seem to like that. In America there are more products sold with Ash and Pikachu together, not just Pikachu alone. I think Americans actually understand the concept of Pokemon better than the Japanese. The Japanese focus on Pikachu, but what I think is important is the human aspect–you need Ash.

Basically, because Pokemon was initially just a monster collecting/trading game in Japan, Pikachu was perceived as being an individual PKMN; in the US, we got absolutely blitzed by a marketing bonanza for the series’ launch that heavily included Ash (particularly the anime), so the two were seen as inseparable. You know, in 1999. It’s probably different now, almost 20 years later.

There’s undoubtedly a split in perception between the US and Japan for Shin Megami Tensei’s demons, too. Here are some random thoughts about the topic (including those from a discussion with @sorenblr):

Japanese fans are naturally privy to every MT/SMT novel, game, book, anime, interview, etc. ever released while the English-speaking world has access to a fraction, much of that fraction from fan translations. The average JP SMT fan just has a better understanding of the series’ context and content than their non-JP counterparts. (If you are reading this blog, chances are that you aren’t a casual SMT fan, so this might not apply to you.)

SMT features more Japanese demons than those from any other single region. It doesn’t mean the average Japanese person will know every single one, but they might still claim affinity with them in ways a Western player won’t. Ame no Uzume, Tenaga, and Waira are not household names here. A fair number know Amaterasu, but as a wolf.

Related to that, Japan’s religious systems of Shinto and Buddhism ensure that the average person there will be more familiar with polytheism than our monotheistic culture, including comparisons to Hindu deities imported to Japan through Buddhism; in the West we are most familiar with polytheism through Greek and Norse myths and only the Norse are well-repped in SMT (moreover, the famous names are generally high-level, which many players may never access). A good 75% (honestly, just a number I’m throwing out there) of any given SMT compendium has little significance to the average Western player.

Building off that, monotheism and Euro folklore figure in plenty (25% is still 100+ demons in recent games) and will probably be the most-recognized overall by Western SMT players. Angels, Fallen demons, Jack Frost, fairies, and Alice come to mind for this category.

In a personal example that intersects of all the elements discussed so far, I read so many passionate defenses of Amemiya’s angel designs in SMT4, but I can’t remember a single one about the similarly bizarre looks for SMT4′s Japanese demons like Michizane, Koga Saburo, or Yamato Takeru. The interest or awareness for JP demons just isn’t correspondent among the English-speaking fanbase.

The lack of regularly introduced demons doesn’t help; the lack of new faces may cause the average player’s eyes to gloss over the old. Seeing Patrimpas for the third or fourth time isn’t going to ingratiate him further (or at all) in the hearts of players.

Some demons have become memes, for better or worse. Awareness of YHVH is high, as antagonistic depictions of him are rare; sometimes SMT is called the series “where you kill the Christian God,” which is amusing to me. Then there’s Mara, of whom only a small minority of non-JP SMT players seem to know his actual significance. And like Mara, some demons are able to coast by merely from their appearances alone, esp. “cuties” like Alice, Moh Shuvuu, Jacks, and Decarabia.

Other demons are remembered if they have exceptional utility. Daisoujou is popular in Nocturne not because he’s a mummified monk but for having essentially unlimited healing at a relatively low level, as are the other Fiends for their exceptional resistances. There’s probably disappointment when the same demon isn’t broken from game to game.

Demon mechanics probably don’t agree with a lot of people, either, lending them the effect of negative conditioning. Complaints about demon negotiation and even fusion are common. Even though fusion is easier with manual skill selection, demons still require a level of micromanagement that may be too much for some. Demons are also meant to be expendable in ways that say, Pokemon, aren’t.

Speaking of things that are expendable, expectations of what “monsters” are from other RPG series likely affect attitudes towards SMT’s demons. Plenty of RPG series use names of mythological beings for its disposable mobs, to the point that it’s unusual when they don’t. Worse, SMT doesn’t do a great job of informing people that there may be something more to its demons. Even as a “monster collecting” series, SMT probably come out too late in the US after the likes of Pokemon, Digimon, or Monster Rancher to have much impact with its traditional formula.

Demons/personas will also forever be overshadowed by human characters. This is to be expected as they are the focus of the narrative. People like me who really don’t give a damn about the humans are squarely in the minority.

Finally, and this is likely isn’t as relevant now, but there’s how Atlus USA initially marketed Nocturne. It didn’t get anything near a Pokemon Red/Blue campaign, but it did get this fascinating print ad. Here’s a snippet:

“The RPG for the GTA generation.” “Dark and gritty.” “Controversy.” “Mature.” “Post-apocalyptic.” I mean, it’s all accurate, and then there’s the “over 100 different demons” as a caption for an image of Dante, the Geralt of 2004. Dark, mature armageddon + lots of demons to collect. But really, I’m not implying they made any mistakes here; these are the limits of marketing. Calling it “Religions Battle 200X” and describing it as “a granular exercise in the representation of myth” doesn’t make for enticing ad copy.

This answer was difficult to write; ultimately, the exact reasons why the demons are overlooked are entirely subjective, but I think the common patterns have been identified here. Against all odds, the value of myth in SMT is something the individual player needs to discover for themselves. Look no further than my own example, as when I first played Nocturne in 2004 pre-myth I found it boring, then a year later post-myth it transformed into one of my most engaging game experiences ever.

I think SMT’s biggest fault re:demons is that it doesn’t provide them enough in-game context for the Western audience; they’re plopped into a modern setting and they want to kill you, or they look like Sarutahiko and they want to bland you to death. To get the most out of it, SMT basically requires you have outside knowledge of myth and religion, which is a lot to ask for a general audience. Unfortunately, I don’t see demon awareness improving anytime soon.

#smt

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demon64 · 4 months ago

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So... I just had this fun idea for the crossover. An alternate universe Rindo, having maybe sort of tapped into the power of Dissonance, accidentally ending up in the SMT world. This alternate Rindo may have accidentally changed his vibration. Considering the Rindo we play as can mental time travel, imagine a sort of "bad end" Rindo just doing something crazier. He could maybe be an optional boss fight that maybe you could recruit later, and only recruit, y'know, considering Rindo is human. Or maybe demon fusion doesn't work for Noise? Oooo! Or a Rindo with the power of Phoenix Cantus as a potential boss fight/recruitable ally.

Or, fun silly idea, imagine a shared universe kins of deal, and Jack Frost getting jealous of Mr. Mew. Or maybe being a fan of Mr. Mew.

Going with alternate shared universe, imagine the gods and monsters of SMT looking like the Noise, or being Reapers. Imagine Matador as a Reaper, the form we know him for being the form he takes when he powers up. Think something like Minamimoto turning into Leo Cantus. Imagine the Reaper's Game that the SMT characters are participating in has them teaming up with a Reaper. Now, some may ask why that idea... well, I think it's all but outright stated in Neo: TWEWY that different areas, like say Shibuya and Shinjuku, have different rules to their Reaper's Game. Shibuya's is built more like how it works in the first TWEWY, Shinjuku's is built more like how it works in Neo. So, imagine protagonist of SMTV and Aogami being a Player/Reaper duo in a different Reaper's Game.

Different idea: imagine Minamimoto being a crossover boss in an SMT game. One battle could be him in base form, another battle as Leo Cantus, and maybe another where it's basically a two-phase boss fight. First phase in base form, second phase as Leo Cantus.

You know... sometimes even I think I come up with some strange crossover ideas. Sometimes they're pretty basic, sometimes they're a bit fleshed out. One crossover that I came up with recently is a Shin Megami Tensei/The World Ends With You crossover. It all started because I have been playing SMT V: Vengeance recently and for no reason TWEWY has been in the back of my mind. So, a crossover idea formed, not helped by some kinda similar enough looking characters.

Some may or may not see it, but Hishima Sakazuki and Yuzuru Atsuta just look kinda similar to me. It's probably the hair and glasses. I also think Shiba Miyakaze looks kinda similar enough to Lucifer's human forms in SMT 3 Nocturne. Like, he almost looks like a middle ground between his old man and child forms in Nocturne.

Does anybody else kinda see it? Am I crazy?

Anyways! Considering Angels do exist in TWEWY, just in a different way compared to in SMT, living in a higher plane of existence, a plane higher than both the UG and the RG, imagine someone like Hanekoma being an old acquaintance of Lucifer's. Or, for a more fun idea, imagine Minamimoto just hopping universes and deciding to investigate the SMT universe for the hell of it. Maybe he thinks it could help in targeting the Composer. Imagine the Demi-Fiend or Nahobino encountering Pi-Face and just the chaos that could ensue.

Going back for a second to Shiba and Lucifer, I had the crazy idea earlier of imagine Shiba being a piece of Lucifer that the Lord of Chaos had separate, for whatever reason. Or maybe in a fan crossover, it could be some variation on that idea. Maybe that piece of Lucifer did not separate willingly?

Or, maybe better idea, Minamimoto meeting Lucifer and the Lord of Chaos taking a bit of an odd liking to this chaotic math-man. Maybe he sees Sho's pursuit to usurp the Composer as similar enough to pursuit to usurp the God of Law.

Overall, it's a fun crossover to play with, with how Gods and Monsters work in SMT, and with the Higher Planes in TWEWY.

EDIT: I don't know if it was like that for everybody, but on my end, after posting, the image for Yuzuru wasn't showing up, so hopefully I fixed it

#self reblog #neo twewy #the world ends with you #mr mew #rindo kanade #phoenix cantus #leo cantus #sho minamimoto #sanae hanekoma #shin megami tensei #smt v #smt v vengeance #nahobino #aogami #jack frost #matador #might add more later

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scoutception · 6 years ago

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Megami Tensei 2: SMT 0.9

Megami Tensei 2 is such a change from the original that it’s almost kind of eerie. Calling it SMT 0.9 is no joke; so many story, design, and gameplay elements that would go on to become mainstays in proper SMT were introduced here, though there’s still enough different that it still feels distinct and, well, weird. As with the MT1 review, I’m covering the SNES remake of the first two games, though ultimately it’s not a huge distinction. At the least, it gives me an excuse to show early Jack Frost.

Story

After how minimal MT1′s story was, MT2 has an almost surprising amount of it. It begins with the world being devastated in a nuclear apocalypse, and a horde of demons from Makai, the demon world, using the chaos to launch an invasion and conquer what remains of the world, with the demon Bael in particular taking over the remains of Tokyo. After that grim introduction... you’re suddenly playing the first game again, complete with the music, the locations, and even the demon negotiation, except with an overhead view for exploration instead of constant first person. Thankfully, it turns out to be just a video game called Devil Busters being played by a normal teenager within an underground shelter built under former Tokyo, 35 years after the nuclear war. It’s actually a fairly comfy and safe location, but the main protagonist has a pushy friend who keeps bugging him to beat the Minotaur, who, also thankfully, is a pushover compared to the first game. Doing so causes a sequence of events so utterly baffling I still don’t feel like I actually properly experienced it even today, which sets the tone for the rest of the game perfectly. This game is just weird, though that’s not to say the first game didn’t have weird stuff, like Beelzebub just being a regular sized fly. Wish I was making that up.

As it turns out, Devil Busters was keeping a demon sealed within itself; Pazuzu, a servant of God. For freeing him, Pazuzu declares the protagonist and his friend messiahs, who will save humanity from the demons. He gifts them both COMPs and the Demon Summoning Program, and teaches the friend magic, before informing them that freeing him has also allowed other demons to invade the shelter through the computer they were playing the game on, and lastly transfers the demons they recruited within the game to their COMPs before promptly running off. After grabbing some guns and killing the leader of the invasions, they set out to the outside world, following the guidance of Pazuzu. After directing them to join with Orthrus, essentially filling Cerberus’ usual role as the power dog demon of the early game, Pazuzu orders the messiahs to kill a witch who has taken residence in Tokyo Tower. Upon confronting her, however, she reveals she was actually a former servant of Pazuzu herself, who deduced he simply intended to overthrow Bael and take his place as ruler of Tokyo, and convinces the protagonist of this. The friend, however, has completely bought in to Pazuzu’s words, and refuses to be swayed, taking Orthrus and leaving the protagonist and his new partner to.... wander around Tokyo aimlessly, collecting pillars and maybe killing Bael along the way.

After a lot of aimless wandering around and events, such as killing Pazuzu and discovering the friend has been transformed into the rather ineffectual Dark Hero, discovering Lucifer frozen in ice (something I’ll get to a bit later), meeting Mr. Suzuki, the president of a company of.... something, and randomly getting eaten by a living island, the party defeats Bael, who promptly turns into a frog that the party for some reason can decide to take. This is the most important frog to ever exist. Afterwards, using all the random pillars they got along the way, the party travels to the Makai, where Lucifer awaits after the Dark Hero freed him from his icy prison. After trudging through several areas of the Makai, the heroes arrive at the domain of Beelzebub, who isn’t exactly doing much better than he was in MT1.

There are many major story spoilers from this point on, just as a warning.

If the Bael frog was taken along, this is the beginning of many choices on whether or not you’ll be able to get the good ending, or be locked into the bad ending (if the frog wasn’t taken, you’re automatically locked into the bad ending). Beelzebub reveals that he and Bael are demonized halves, split by God, and asks that he be allowed to fuse with the frog to regain their true form. Doing so causes Baal to join your party for the confrontation with Lucifer, who himself reveals many things.

Lucifer was originally cast out of heaven for providing wisdom to humanity, who then worshiped him over God in the hopes of obtaining unsurpassed knowledge, and in anger, God, or YHVH, as he’s also referred to, ordered his servant, Satan, to cause the nuclear war to wipe out all of humanity. Lucifer, apparently feeling more heroic after his own round of being the villain, offers to join you in defeating the actual true enemy, Satan, who has been masquerading as Mr. Suzuki. Now, the ending of MT1 has Lucifer claim that Nakajima was being manipulated by God in his attempts to defeat Lucifer, and, assuming the bonus dungeon added in the remake was done, Cerberus would comment on His ambitions as well. Said Cerberus is also obtainable in an alternate version of Devil Busters accessed later in one of the visitable districts, tying the games together rather sensibly, though I’m unsure if Lucifer’s claims were in the original version of MT1. Regardless, Lucifer is required to access the good ending. Denying his request will force a difficult battle with him, with Beelzebub also being fightable earlier assuming his request was also denied.

After traveling through Suzuki’s company, and encountering another corrupted deity, Asura, who will either be healed by Lucifer and join the party, or be fought, Satan reveals himself, and, after being defeated, warns of His power. If the player was locked into the bad ending earlier, the game ends with YHVH revealing himself to the hero and his partner, sing praises of them and transporting them to his Millennium Kingdom, transformed into gods, but left unable to save the rest of humanity. If Lucifer is present, however, the party continues on to confront YHVH, who attempts to bribe them with godhood in exchange for turning on Lucifer. If they accept, the same ending as the one previously described happens, but if they refuse, He battles them Himself, and, surprisingly, His design is very, very close to His design from SMT2 onward, more than any other character in the game.

With the death of YHVH, the demons vanish from the human world, though not before He warns of being part of the Great Will, which shall seek to avenge Him. After revisiting the shelter, and discovering that the Devil Busters game was designed by Nakajima himself, the hero and his partner lead an exodus to the outside world, remaining vigilant against any threat that may arise again.

While the story isn’t as detailed as most of the later games, and there’s many long segments that lack any story of note, it’s fascinating for a game from the Famicom. Elements that endure in SMT even today, like Lucifer being the active enemy of YHVH, and a self styled ally of humanity, Satan being the most trusted servant of Him, YHVH being a complete jerk in general, rival deities of YVHV being demonized, even the presence of the Messians and Gaeans, though minor, all originate from this game. SMT owes a lot to this game.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to the original MT, though are many added features that would also become mainstay elements in SMT. Instead of merely melee weapons, guns have been added, although they’re rather underpowered compared to melee. Elementals and three way fusions have been added for demon summoning, though, in my experience, many of the fusion exclusive demons are underpowered compared to some of the demons acquired during the story, especially Lucifer himself. Also newly added is an overhead view on the world map, which helps just make the game feel less, cramped and restricted, compared to the first.

There are many locations to explore, and the pacing during the Tokyo sections feels oddly fast to me, but most locations at least have events like a demon mind controlling a town of Gaeans, and the hero’s arm being severed attempting to take one of the pillars, forcing him to get a mechanical replacement arm from the resident mad scientist, which also functions as a COMP capacity upgrade.

While the game is pretty fun during the Tokyo parts, the Makai parts quickly take a nosedive. Whether it be irritating gimmicks for each area, such as a section where the COMP does not working at all, preventing you from summoning demons before entering or, you know, using the map, and a section that deprives you of your Partner, to world map areas that are pitch black and very difficult to navigate, to even roadblocks that can only be cleared with specific demons that the game doesn’t exactly jump to tell you about. It severely damages what would otherwise be a pretty fun game.

Sound and graphics

The graphics aren’t much different from the first game overall, though the change in areas allows for new environments like abandoned buildings, which are usually more interesting to look at. The world map graphics are pretty good, and definitely fit a ruined Tokyo and, well, Hell. Plus, the main character has a very snazzy cape, which is worth points by itself.

The most interesting part of the graphics, again, are the demons. This was the first game with Kazuma Kaneko doing the demon designs, though he himself isn’t too proud of them. While some, like YHVH and Jack Frost above, are decently close to their final, iconic designs, others, like Lucifer and Satan, are a bit, questionable. They’re almost there, but not quite.

While the sound is also about the same as the first game, the music is greatly improved. The original Famicom version used a memory chip that, among other improvements, allowed for greatly improved sound, making for one of the richest soundtracks of the 8-bit era, which also translated well to the SNES. The battle themes, especially the final boss theme, are much better, and the exploration themes are great.

Conclusion

In the end, however, I still think this game is not recommended. While a big improvement over the first game, and a very important game in the series, the design is still fairly archaic, and missing quite a few elements that make SMT so notable, such as the law, chaos, and neutral alignment system. While interesting to go through, you’re ultimately better off sticking with SMT proper.

If you managed to get through this gigantic wall of a review, thank you very much. My next review shall be something from a different franchise, though for I’m unsure as to which yet. All the same, I shall return. Until next time.

-Scout

#shin megami tensei #gaming #long post #game review

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purplematsuno4 · 6 years ago

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Another Munday Prompt Except This Was Made On a Sunday Because I’m a Rebel

Remember to repost, not reblog!

Name: Stellina, or Star

Prefered pronouns: she/her

Selectivity: i’m not very selective. I’m willing to try to rp with almost anyone. I’m only really likely to avoid people who are constantly posting about drama or am afraid would um not like me. I’m just here to write with people and enjoy myself

Favorite animal: cats.

Favorite muse you’ve had so far ever: Probably ichi (including aus of him) honestly. I don’t have a ton of muses and he’s probably partially getting this spot cause he is my fav matsu. I enjoy writing him.

Muse you kinda wanna pick up: Another matsu besides jyushi or ichi... or um akihiko sanada from P3 some day

Most identifiable fictional character: Chiaki Nanami

What color your aura is/think it is: purple definitely purple

Personality stuff you agree with (astrology, mbti, Hogwarts house, etc be as specific as you want!): infp.

Do you think you’re a good driver: I think i’m alright. Not the best, but I’m at least confident in my ability to get to school and back.

Favorite minor discourse (pineapple on pizza, what color is the dress, etc): I dont really like discourse that much, but I will argue about pineapple on pizza.

Favorite vine and/or meme: You know the persona 5 battle menu. I like edits of that onto other characters just cause it’s so aesthetic even if the meme is dead.

Why did you choose this muse: well i felt like he’d be easy for me to write and he wa/is my favorite character from ososan.. A shy, sarcastic, cat loving, neet who tends to think he’s garbage just felt like something I could do. Once I started writing him I’ve just had a lot of fun with it even though I feel i make him too nice sometimes.

Favorite rp memory: .....crack ichimatsu selfcest

Favorite thing you’ve written, in rp or not: I like writing more serious things, but I have a crack muse I write on discord it’s jack frost from persona and smt and I always find my self laughing when I mess around with the character.

A line/lyrics/quote/etc you like or that means a lot to you:...i cant think of one right now sorry

Give a shout-out to someone: I’m to scared to tag them cause I feel annoying but im going to shout out two people incendiaryfealty and programpink/dandielicn. The people running these blogs are nice and I love the effort they put into their ocs, and I wish them the best.

Tagged by: @nitrcglycerine

Tagging: @hcppy-days @impishone @antioso anyone who wants to.

#ooc

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