A let's play of every megami tensei.... Ah wait. It's just shin megami tensei, I thought someone wished for death. Even shin megami tensei 2 is going to .... Annoy you a bit though.
Granted, as far as character building systems go, this is fairly simple and seems combat-focused - I'm not seeing a charisma stat or anything that would indicate these would impact out-of-combat actions. So that makes things a lot easier, I imagine. The "lets you invest in Magic even though your character can't cast magic" thing though is... I don't miss these old school chargen traps.
Yeah about that... lots of games by early atlus loved to have dump stats that also gated certain side quests. So I don't recall exactly if luck or magic affected anything in Shin Megami Tensei, and if it did, it's probably like, one of the pantheon heads optional demons, but I also wouldn't be surprised if a symbolic but annoying value like 10-25 luck or magic was required for a side quest even for the hero later on. Just early Atlus things.
The real mindfuck in these games is the amount of demons and the fusion mechanics and how absurdly in depth and completely undocumented in game they are. Sure there are obvious things that seem like they would help like "3 way fusion" and you sometimes hear rumors that the moon phase affects demons so you kind of have a start clue of (some of the factors) and I think it was "vile" demon race that never joined by negotiating so you can guess there is something fiddly there, but this was a game before the internet that wanted you to muddle through but if you wanted to go deeper, go do your own fucking spreadsheet I guess.
At least they had maps (by the way the first shin megami tensei really benefits besides the translation from the romhack that makes the map accessible with a single button instead of going to the menu).
Bodycon in this case is probably referring to both the style of dress but also the late 80s-early 90s clubbing subculture associated with it at the time of the Japanese 'bubble economy' which had well and truly burst by the time Shin Megami Tensei came out. It's basically a riff on social conformity within a cutting edge that nominally feigned to disdain such a thing. I think you could compare it to like calling a zombie enemy an 'iZombie' or something, or maybe like if you had aliens called 'BBLiens' that all had big butts. Like it's probably meant to signify that the person has become soulless or 'dead inside' fitting into what's fashionable. I'm pretty sure a Japanese teen at the time would have easily clocked this on some level as basically making fun of 'overly fashion-conscious clubgoing women' even if the specifics got a bit lost.
Hard to say how much of this is retrospective but there's some meat on the bone here about dancing late-stage capitalism away while the world goes through a massive financial crash around you that ruins the economy for the rest of time (the Japanese economy has, broadly, basically never recovered from the bubble popping). Not caring about trying to fix your society and just partying until the end arrives. The conspicuous consumerism of that era is notable looking backwards but I'm not sure how obvious it would have been in 1992 when everything was relatively recent and still would have seemed like a temporary, recoverable blip. Kaneko is a big fashion guy so he perhaps put more thought into this than the audience would have immediately understood but even then it's giving him a lot of credit to have cognised the metaphor that quickly. Seems more likely that they kind of 'got lucky' with such a multi-faceted design and the original intention was just poking fun at the fashion itself.
Social commentary!
It's maybe worth noting that 'Bodyconian' is essentially untranslated here because it's entirely katakana, as in the way the word is written is how it's said and how it's said is also what it means in English (in this case). It's a compound loanword with the western/English word 'bodycon' and the western/English suffix 'ian.' The Japanese script is literally just 'bo-di-ko-ni-a-n.'
Also commenting on the game, many of the tunes in this game\series are pretty good for SNES midi. Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne merely continued the tradition of ominous bangers. I'd suggest linking some of the better ones when they happen.
Kaneko is a big fashion guy so he perhaps put more thought into this than the audience would have immediately understood but even then it's giving him a lot of credit to have cognised the metaphor that quickly. Seems more likely that they kind of 'got lucky' with such a multi-faceted design and the original intention was just poking fun at the fashion itself.
Good question. If Kaneko and company were looking at history they might have noticed enough parallels to do it intentionally, whether or not they fully grasped the shape of things to come. Flappers popping up right before the Great Depression, off the top of my head. And I feel like it's fairly reasonable for some people to notice a bubble growing and about to pop- although I may be spoiled by how many economic bubbles did just that during my life.
Because of the concept art, especially the one where he's aiming the machine gun one handed, holding a shotgun in the other over the shoulder, a belt of bullets worn under the tactcool jacket and with a sword belt with a ornate sword in the other shoulder, I used to call "Adam" here 'Terrorist Egon Spengler'. Once you see it...
The later game where he appears concept art is also cool, especially the later one. More plastic but very stylish.
Welcome back to Shin Megami Tensei, the game I'm coming back to to relax after finally reaching the last boss in the Elden Ring DLC.
Where we last left off, we'd just met En-no-Ozuno in a very strange place after Mary teleported Hero away seconds before a nuclear ICBM detonated in Tokyo, and until we find Noah and Adam, En-no-Ozuno has no intention of telling us anything.
First things first—the music is the same "mystical" tune that played when we met the old man in the park and a handful of other places, which fits given that we've just met a founder of an ancient syncretic religion that focused on the power of boundary spaces between the physical and spiritual worlds. En-no-Ozuno's two oni companions are apparently close by and open for helping us, so we're gonna take a quick walk to find them.
That was easy.
Directly to the left and right of En-no-Ozuno's room are Goki and Zenki, and they do exactly what they say on the tin. Goki is free healing, Zenki is our save point. It's worrying that the game is giving me seemingly limitless healing and saves for this area, but given that I've lost Mary that's somewhat understandable—Hero themself can't learn any spells, so no magic healing, and there's no guarantee that the player picked up any demons that can heal or still has any items left. It's mostly just more considerate than I was expecting!
I save my game with Zenki again, just in case, and then walk outside, where I realise that my party is empty. I hit the COMP menu to at least get the squad out, and then I realise that my party is empty.
This is the same message boomers get when they run out of memes to post on Facebook.
When Mary said she could teleport Hero away, evidently she meant she could teleport Hero away. I can only hope that my demons got scrambled and I'll get 'em back at some point in the story, because losing out on Angel and the others is going to be a huge pain right now. To rub it in even further, that door on the right that you can see leads directly to another instance of the Heretic Mansion, where I'm given the option to fuse 2 of my 0 demons to create something stronger. Resisting the urge to slap the old man who tells me to come back when I've got some more minions, I walk back out and see what else is around. There's a door directly to the right, and when I enter it…
!!!
Pyro Jack appears! It cheerfully says hello to Hero and comments that they're still alive and kicking, and then we're given a choice of whether or not to let it back into our party. This isn't really much of a choice, given there's no downside, so I invite the lil' guy along and start exploring. The rest of the squad are probably around here somewhere, and the sooner I can get a party together, the better.
Especially since, as it happens, this place is very much not safe.
Kinnari are the female versions of Kinnara, creatures from Buddhist and Hindu legend. In Buddhist tales, they're half-human and half-bird creatures associated heavily with music, while in Hindu legend they're half-human and half-horse, most often travel in pairs of loving couples, and have an association with Indra.
The Kinnari do not fuck around remotely. An initial failed negotiation rapidly transitions into a staggering amount of damage as they unleash Agilao and Bufula, the upgraded single-target fire and ice spells. Bufula would have spelled death since it'd have frozen me, but Hero miraculously avoids it, meaning that they're only in danger of being burned to death by fire spells that deal 60+ damage with each shot. Hero's gun only deals 17 damage to each one and doesn't put their icons in the "near death" state, so I hedge my bets and try another negotiation.
Kinnari asks if I'm trying to save the world, I say yes, and she joins my party just like that. Just as I'm congratulating myself and Hero for their hero rizz, I'm reminded that random encounters can have several demons attacking one after the other.
Tsuchigumo are a variety of spider-like yokai in Japanese mythology, first appearing as yokai in the Tale of the Heike. Another famous example is the Tsuchigumo Sōshi, an emakimono illustrated hand scroll depicting the legendary heroes Minamoto-no-Yorimitsu and Watanabe-no-Tsuna slaying a giant tsuchigumo.
I can't tell you how strong the thing is, I took one look at it and one look at my HP and I bounced. After using up some of my Life Stones for healing (along the way noticing that each stack is capped at 9, and going over that takes up another slot), I summon up Pyro Jack and Kinnari, who can act as meat shields to an extent. Both have Agilao in their skillset as well, so if I run into something resistant to physical damage I'll have answers. Running into something that resists physical and fire is still a worry, though, so I'm hoping I find Angel next.
Back outside the door to the Heretic Mansion, we pass another door that leads to a room that's sealed up tight. We've no hint on how to get through this, no sign of any ID card, so we move on from there. To our right is another door, and this one is much better.
Hee-how're you doing, buddy?
Unfortunately there's no variance in demon dialogue, at least for the two Jack brothers, but maybe it's a per-race thing and Angel or Spartoi will have something different. I backtrack out of the room and check the left corridor instead, which emerges out into another set of corridors.
This particular map is weird—there's no open spaces like the Shinjuku mall, so even though it seems big, it's built like the smaller maps like the embassy or Gotou's HQ. The main effect of this is making it a bit of a trial to navigate, especially when everything is just the same two shades of blue with no real landmarks, but thankfully I can pull up the map at the touch of a button and direct myself. Real talk: I don't know if I'd be able to bring myself to continue this if every time I wanted to check a map I had to go two menus deep.
I run into a Nekomata along the way, which as it happens I can't actually show because it takes the form of literally just a chalk-white woman on all fours with a tail and very visible nipples, so I'll just give the usual bite-sized infodump without the italics. Nekomata are yokai most often found in Japanese tales, though some very early Chinese texts also make reference to them. There are two different types, those born in the mountains and regular household cats that lived long enough to become yokai.
Given the fact that we're in En-no-Ozuno's domain it fits that we get mountain-dwelling yokai, and now that I have a party again it's much less risky to try recruiting. "Less" in this case is relative, because Nekomata takes the opportunity to claw Jack Frost to death, but a second attempt nails it and I'm able to summon her up to replace the Jack I just lost. I expect that the fairies from Shinjuku mall are going to start falling short sooner rather than later, so it'll be nice to kick off some fusions and see what I can get with all the levels I gained between the last time I was at the Heretic Mansion and now.
First off, though, is finishing off exploring this place—and running into another Kinnari actually gives me a chance to show off a mechanic that I thought about but hadn't mentioned prior to now. As per attempts with the Heretic Mansion, you know that we can't bring two of the same demon along at the same time—trying to do so will just get the old man telling you it's not possible. Recruiting another of the same demon also doesn't work, but for different reasons.
As it happens, every single individual of the same kind of demon knows each other, and all consider themselves friends. Trying to talk to a demon while already having that demon on your team, whether active or not, will result in the battle immediately ending with no further questions. Sometimes you might even get some cash or an item out of it too, which is extremely nice—in this case, Kinnari gave me 613 magnetite, which is more than 20% of my entire stash up to now. You lose out on the guaranteed EXP, cash, and magnetite you would have gotten from actually fighting, but you skip the resource drain. It's not something I'll do all the time, but it's handy to have the option if I'm feeling a little fragile or if I'm rushing to get to an objective.
I charge directly ahead into the door you can just barely see beyond Kinnari, and run into Noah.
He's had better days.
Noah is shocked to see Hero, and immediately starts explaining what happened to him prior to now. He'd been searching for Mary, as we know, and all of a sudden was swallowed up by a blinding white light. Evidently it wasn't the nuke, since he then ended up in En-no-Ozuno's domain, so either Mary's teleportation spell had a much wider range than she thought, or someone else saved Noah and likely Adam.
At any rate, he seems galvanised by seeing Hero—where before he'd seemed content to just sit around, now he's insisting the two of them work together to find a way out. It's honestly kind of cute, in a way. Noah joins the party, becoming playable again, and we move onto exploring the rest of this place. As we do, I run into another new demon.
I couldn't find any information on these at all save for what's in the SMT wiki, so once again I'll drop that here. Tan-ki, or Dan Gui in Chinese, are spirits of the earth reminiscent of a turtle, but according to legend there's no clear description of what they actually look like.
He's a friendly sort, joining up with me without any fight necessary, and appropriately enough he's pretty tanky himself, boasting 17 Vitality and coming equipped with the evasion-raising Sukukaja spell and a unique ability to create a Wall of Water which negates fire spells. Could be very useful in the future!
Going forward I end up battling another group of Tsuchigumo, and I find out what they do when they end up dodging almost all my attacks and brutally kill Noah. It turns out they're very tough, and even know Hama, though fortunately everyone who gets targeted by it dodges it and avoids instantly dying. I don't manage to recruit them, but I do manage to recruit the next demon I find on my way back to Goki for healing.
Apsara are feminine spirits of water in Hinduism and Buddhism, noted for their legendary beauty and their surpassing skill at dance and other performing arts.
Appropriately enough for reasons that'll become clear in the next blurb, I'm then immediately attacked by another new demon, a pair of Gandharvas.
Gandharvas are masculine nature spirits in Hinduism and Buddhism, noted for their skill at making music and often portrayed as the husbands of apsaras.
I do try to reunite the couple, but unfortunately Gandharva wants a Bead and I'm fresh out. It's Bead or no deal, he insists, and when I come up short he decides that the next best thing is my life. Unwilling to risk it, I bail and escape. I end up going north rather than south since I'm not paying super close attention after getting Noah almost killed, and while at first I'm a little annoyed that I've lengthened the amount of time before I get back to Goki, my lack of direction is rewarded.
Adam's also had better days.
Adam's immediate response to seeing Hero is to, ironically, thank God. He goes onto explain that Ozawa ended up slipping through his fingers, and then he was teleported to a strange place with no warning. Ozawa is…well, he's probably not a factor anymore, but we can have that conversation later. Adam admits that the demons here are tough and he's not strong enough to take them on all by himself, so he joins the party again! The squad is back together, and Goki is right next to En-no-Ozuno, so the moment I get some healing I can progress things. I check out one last door nearby, and it happens to have Azumi in it, who I pick up once more. I figure I'm probably close to my limit on demons now, so rather than go straight to En-no-Ozuno, I instead decide to visit the Heretic Mansion again after a visit to Goki and Zenki to heal and save.
Looking at my previous save file also tells me that this place is called "Kongokai", which is the Japanese name for the Diamond Realm, a realm where the Five Great Buddhas are said to dwell in. It's important to certain sects of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, but I don't have a great familiarity, certainly not enough to speak in any way authoritatively. Anyone who's more familiar, I'd appreciate the input!
The Heretic Mansion is unfortunately not quite the slam dunk I was hoping for—I don't want to fuse away any of my newly recruited demons, and most combinations of the Jack brothers, Cu Sith, and Azumi end up giving me demons I already have. Fortunately, I manage to fuse Pyro Jack and Cu Sith away into this little number.
Unicorns have been depicted in some form or another since the Indus Valley Civilization in 2000 BC, where a four legged creature reminiscent of a cow with a single spiraling horn was a common soapstone stamp seal. The classical association with purity came about in the Middle Ages, where only a virgin woman could tame one.
Having access to Hama and Me Patra again is too good to pass up, even if I'm likely to run into Angel again soon. This way I can at least double up if necessary, since Hama only hits twice. I did give a look to see if I could fuse Azumi, Cu Sith, and Pyro Jack together, but that would have resulted in a level 30 demon, 8 levels too high for me to do anything with it.
As a quick aside, it's funny to me that we have three separate races for Holy, Divine, and Deity.
With Unicorn on our side, it's time to head back to En-no-Ozuno.
Squad squad squad squad squad
En-no-Ozuno explains that this realm is called Kongokai, and from our perspectives it's a place that's much like the "afterworld", or the Abyss. Presumably these are stand-ins for Heaven and Hell? He then, uh…
Well, he says something that really deserves a screenshot.
The escalation is vertical.
Tokyo's destruction sparked nuclear war across the world. Civilization as we knew it is gone.
Noah responds with shock and disbelief, asking what the Earth is like now, and if it's been totally destroyed. En-no-Ozuno, in the most tone deaf comforting attempt I've ever seen, explains that there's no need to worry and yes he uses those exact words. Despite the destruction, humanity has managed to survive somehow. Upon hearing this, Adam begs to be sent back immediately, but En-no-Ozuno cautions him and asks if that's really such a good idea, given how much it's changed—at this point, he says, with all the chaos and destruction, it may be a worse place than the Abyss.
Noah declares that that only makes him want to go back more, so he can defeat the demons and bring peace back to the world. En-no-Ozuno accepts this, but before he'll send us home he wants us to listen to his plea. Before he'll send us back, he wants us to explore the Kongokai further and find a spring that exists within it. From the spring, we're to retrieve some Soma, and then return to him—Soma being a ritualistic divine drink in Hinduism. If we don't hurry, the spring will dry up, and we'll have to wait an indeterminate amount of time for it to start flowing once more.
En-no-Ozuno declares that he's opened the south gate for us, and he'll await our return.
Well.
I suppose this was basically inevitable, wasn't it? The United States firing an unprovoked nuclear strike at the capital of Japan couldn't be a localized incident in a world full of nuclear weapons. Thor's Hammer fell, and the rest of the world fell with it. Humanity survived, somehow, but apparently regardless of their survival the world has now become somewhere possibly worse than Hell itself. Is it a case where people have inexplicably survived the radiation? Or did Demon Summoners carve out areas within barriers that people can survive? Are there survivors worldwide, or just in Tokyo? Where exactly is God's thousand-year kingdom, if the entire world has been destroyed?
Lots of questions. We're going to grab the Soma ASAP so we can get answers.
With the south gate opened, we can explore a little more, but it seems like it's mostly just one long circular corridor. I hit a corner and find a door there, which leads me into a spot with a flickering phantom of En-no-Ozuno, who asks a simple question.
Who starts a conversation like this???
He warns us about being careful about the demons we kill, and then vanishes. Very weird. The doorway directly across from him leads back into the main hallway, but it's just a one way door and vanishes when I walk through. Hm.
Further exploration leads to a flickering phantom of a woman who declares that God is the only savior of humanity in these dark times—if they offer up their prayers to Him, He will save them all. She vanishes right after, and we return to the main route. Hm.
We hit another corner, and we find another apparition of En-no-Ozuno. This one explains that no one can tell us what right and wrong are, and that these are things we have to discover for ourselves. We have to make our own decisions, because no one else will make them for us. Finally, he explains that these decisions will change my alignment to reflect them—aha. So here, he's teaching us about how the alignment system works. The previous tip probably means that killing demons has an effect on alignment, and in fact I did notice that demon status screens mention that demons are aligned one way or another—scroll up a bit, and you can see that Unicorn is Law alignment. So…killing a Unicorn might shift me towards Chaos?
That could get annoying, if the shifts are major rather than minor. You don't really have a choice but to kill to gain resources, so trying to be specific about demons you run from or talk down and demons you kill could be a chore. Then again, I killed a lot of demons over the course of the pre-nuke world, and I only barely shifted into Law towards the very end, so we'll see.
The corridor after this has a bunch of doors. The first one leads to Imp, who doesn't recognize me—I presume because my stock is full? That's a shame, but eh, I'll live. The next one is, uh, Mary?
No, not that Mary, the other Mary.
She's a flickering apparition too, and all she does is inform us that she didn't have any strange dreams prior to this. It's unclear if this is the real Mary, or her ghost, or something, but it seems to only really exist to let people know that the Mary we live next to and the Mary we've been fighting alongside are different people. Don't think we really needed that, but we got it, so!
The third and final door leads to Dryad, who also doesn't recognize us. Definitely too many demons in stock, but it'd be nice if they let me know that, boo.
We hit the northeast corner and I prepare for another lecture from En-no-Ozuno, only to find something very different!
We collect some Soma and head back outside, only to find the door directly to our south is blocked off. We have to take the door to the west instead, which takes us along the way to find another apparition, this time of a man who claims that Lucifer sacrificed everything for humanity, and thus he and others worship him for his courage. He vanishes immediately after, but it's pretty obvious he's meant to be the equal and opposite voice to the faithful woman across the map.
Double-checking the map just to be sure, and En-no-Ozuno does, in fact, exist at a perfect middle between the two. The game is a couple things, but not very subtle about what it considers the correct path.
I do like that this is all very clearly En-no-Ozuno acting as a mentor in a very roundabout way, though. Sending the trio together on a trip for Soma gives them the opportunity to not only grow through combat, but also to see the arguments being made by both sides of the Law and Chaos divide, as well as his own phantoms offering them general life advice and advice on how to make choices and take responsibility. The Soma probably isn't important, or at least not as important as the way the crew will grow along the path. As mentioned before, it's very appropriate for a guy who founded a religion based on growing stronger by training in the mountains, to boil it down to an incredibly reductive single statement.
We make our way down to the south-eastern corner of the map, and we find another En-no-Ozuno shade. This one cautions us that while Hero might be the one who binds and commands demons, the demons that they summon will still influence their alignment. Nothing much to say about that, it's pretty open and shut. Summoning Unicorn will shift my alignment slightly towards Law, summoning something aligned to Chaos will shift my alignment that way. Easy to follow, though again, hopefully not too major or else it could get very fiddly. It doesn't take long to complete the loop from there, bringing us back to En-no-Ozuno in the flesh. Again, a quick visit to Goki and Zenki to heal and save, and we check in to see what the big man will do for us now.
You motherf-
En-no-Ozuno is a thirsty boy, and he wants yet more Soma. We have no option to refuse. We have to walk back and get it for him.
At least this time I know where it is.
We make our way there and back again in the grand tradition of hobbits getting jerked around by wizards in white robes, and when we get back he pulls this shit.
Gee thanks, so kind of you to let me have that thing i fought my way through demons to get
Before any of the trio can bring up the fact that he promised to send us back home once we got him his Soma, he launches into another story about two phantasms that live in this place, both carrying a powerful weapon. He then demands we kill both phantasms and bring the weapons back to him, and by "we" I mean "Hero and their demons", because apparently he's got other tasks for Noah and Adam.
Inexplicably, Noah and Adam do this without comment or protest, rather than beating the guy upside the head.
Anyway, En-no-Ozuno opens the north gate for Hero, and thus we explore the middle ring of the whole area. I find Angel before long, and ultimately choose to dismiss Azumi to get her back—Azumi is a lower level and has lower stats, so while I'd have preferred to fuse it away, I can't really justify it if I can't make a fusion and there's a better demon right in front of me, especially when I'm going to be forced to fight these phantasms with just a party of demons. A little further along the path, and I run into this charming fellow.
Almost immediately, the phantasm transforms into, uh…well, someone with a specific choice of fashion.
As predicted, I'm currently aligned with Law.
Seeing as how the phantasm and I have the same alignment, he just hands over his weapon, the Kodachi of Light, without a fight. It comes with a slight increase to power and accuracy, but only attacks once, so I'll leave it for the moment. I figure that as long as I keep going in a circle I'll eventually hit the other phantasm, so I check the door next to the phantasm and am immediately hit with a gutshot.
Oh, man.
This really is not Hero's day. The whole trip is obviously meant to be En-no-Ozuno helping to train them, but having an apparition of Hero's mother saying some of the exact same things she said to them before she was killed is a lot. I step outside, run into a group of Nekomata, and get charmed to death and die.
Let it be known that I took a deep breath, restrained myself from turning off the game for the night, and persevered so we could reach a more natural stopping point.
Dismiss Azumi, grab Angel, grab the Kodachi again, we're back where we were. Unfortunately the middle ring of the map does not go in a circle, so we have to backtrack and head to the other end the long way. Not ideal, but as long as I avoid fighting groups that are too big I can farm a little EXP along the way. It's not too long before we meet the next phantasm, this one purple.
Surprisingly, it doesn't transform, and being that I'm not aligned with Chaos it decides to attack me immediately, still in the full on spooky ghost pose.
The phantasm hits absurdly hard, taking off 85 points of Unicorn's 131 HP in a single shot, but fortunately it only acts once. Tsuchigumo is able to poison it, but that's about all that I accomplished that turn, and without a Diarama caster I'm reliant on Apsaras spamming Media to try and pump HP up enough to survive more shots. This turns out to be a little prophetic, because the phantasm fires off a Maragi next turn, and—
Hm.
Big melee hits, Maragi, Chaos aligned…I wonder if this is meant to be a stand in for Adam, and that's why En-no-Ozuno didn't want the two of them following Hero around? It's a preview of having to fight the ones I'm not aligned with?
That could be neat, but also lord is this ever rough. The phantasm never takes more than 12 damage from anything I do, even when I swap out some demons so I can start firing off Bufulas, and ultimately it manages to whittle me down and deal me a fully legitimate attrition loss. It definitely stings, but this is exactly what I was asking for before, so it doesn't sting too badly.
Second time around, I end up going for a different tactic. I bring Apsaras, Tan-Ki, and Kinnari. Apsaras has Rakukaja to boost defense and Media for healing, Tan-Ki has Sukukaja to boost evasion and accuracy and Wall of Water for nullifying fire damage, and Kinnari has Bufula for damage and potential freezing. It's a slow process, working down hundreds of HP 12 damage at a time, but it works in the end—in no small part due to a panic toss of a Mabufu stone after the phantasm casts Shibaboo to Bind all of my demons, leaving them easy pickings had the Mabufu stone not froze it solid and allowed them time to shake off the spell.
It's a slow process, but it's a steady one, and I manage to kill it before I get too sleepy and nap on my keyboard.
Good chunk of EXP too.
The phantasm drops something called the Guillotine Axe, which is a massive increase in power and massive decrease in accuracy. It's also not something I can equip, because it's locked to the Chaos alignment.
Checking out the door next to the phantasm, we see maybe someone we should have expected to see.
Repeating her last words to us, as they all were.
It feels a little weird and uncomfortable to have all these spectres be the women in Hero's life repeating their last words to them before they presumably or definitely died, while all the men get to be heroes, but I suppose I can't expect much from 1992 RPGs. I take a wrong turn on the way back that leads me to a chest with 1440 magnetite, then quickly backtrack and make my way back to En-no-Ozuno, promising myself that if he demands I do another errand for him, I'll kick his ass up and down the entire Diamond Realm.
As soon as we enter, Noah immediately leaps to his feet and tells Hero that it's good to see them, before rejoining the party. Adam joins a minute later, complaining about how long Hero made him wait but admitting it's good to see them unharmed. It's a sweet moment!
Even sweeter—En-no-Ozuno has no more tasks. He grants Hero a new weapon, Mikazuchi's Tachi, and announces that the east gate has been opened, and the party can return to their world at their leisure. Unfortunately I can't equip Mikazuchi's Tachi because my alignment doesn't match—I'd bet my bottom dollar it's the Neutral equivalent to the Kodachi of Light's Law weapon and the Guillotine Axe's Chaos weapon—so we're left with nothing to do but save.
Next time: we crawl out through the fallout back into Tokyo.
Let it be known that I took a deep breath, restrained myself from turning off the game for the night, and persevered so we could reach a more natural stopping point.
Interesting to see how the beginning of the SMT series handled alignments. Thanks for your perseverance, and here's hoping the RNG doesn't toy with you too much.
I run into a Nekomata along the way, which as it happens I can't actually show because it takes the form of literally just a chalk-white woman on all fours with a tail and very visible nipples, so I'll just give the usual bite-sized infodump without the italics.
"Less" in this case is relative, because Nekomata takes the opportunity to claw Jack Frost to death, but a second attempt nails it and I'm able to summon her up to replace the Jack I just lost.
Before he'll send us back, he wants us to explore the Kongokai further and find a spring that exists within it. From the spring, we're to retrieve some Soma, and then return to him—Soma being a ritualistic divine drink in Hinduism. If we don't hurry, the spring will dry up, and we'll have to wait an indeterminate amount of time for it to start flowing once more.
I step outside, run into a group of Nekomata, and get charmed to death and die.
Let it be known that I took a deep breath, restrained myself from turning off the game for the night, and persevered so we could reach a more natural stopping point.
Squirtodyle: "oh boy i sure do love doing this let's play of an old dungeon-crawler rpg-"
Six catgirls leaping out from behind a single box: "MARIN FUCKING KARIN"
Even sweeter—En-no-Ozuno has no more tasks. He grants Hero a new weapon, Mikazuchi's Tachi, and announces that the east gate has been opened, and the party can return to their world at their leisure. Unfortunately I can't equip Mikazuchi's Tachi because my alignment doesn't match—I'd bet my bottom dollar it's the Neutral equivalent to the Kodachi of Light's Law weapon and the Guillotine Axe's Chaos weapon—so we're left with nothing to do but save.
Basing alignment on what monsters you summon (abilities you can access) and what monsters you kill (random encounters you don't flee) as opposed to what story actions you actually take in the game is kind of bizarre, to me.
I guess it has a degree of being self-feeding, since if you summon a lot of Law demons you're more likely to get peaceful non-encounters when you run into those same Law demons in battle, but still.
Basing alignment on what monsters you summon (abilities you can access) and what monsters you kill (random encounters you don't flee) as opposed to what story actions you actually take in the game is kind of bizarre, to me.
I guess it has a degree of being self-feeding, since if you summon a lot of Law demons you're more likely to get peaceful non-encounters when you run into those same Law demons in battle, but still.
So there's two values for alignment. There's your "true" alignment, which starts at 127 and goes to 0 (law) and 255 (chaos). For reference, Neutral is between 127 and 143 points (starting right at the cusp of Law is probably why Squirto is considered Law aligned right now despite doing only minor things to alter his alignment, in fact - a single point of Law alignment's enough to set him off), major decisions alter your alignment by 16 points and extremely major decisions alter it by 32 points.
There's also what I like to think of as an alignment XP meter (there might be two - one for Law and one for Chaos - I don't remember), where minor actions like killing demons you have a contract with (which always gives chaos xp), summoning, contracting or fusing demons, or using healing services (kaifuku/ashram healers move you towards neutral insted of law or chaos) eventually add up until they give you a single point of chaos or law alignment.
So story decisions are exponentially more important than gameplay actions which take a while to have even a minor effect on your alignment - but they do have an effect on your alignment that adds up over time so it's important to keep it in mind.
I do want to go in unspoiled so I'd appreciate if things could be kept under a box if the discussion continues, but I'm absolutely baffled as to how Law could possibly be worse in the sequel when in this one it starts as "God tells America to nuke Japan and causes the apocalypse"
So there's two values for alignment. There's your "true" alignment, which starts at 127 and goes to 0 (law) and 255 (chaos). For reference, Neutral is between 127 and 143 points (starting right at the cusp of Law is probably why Squirto is considered Law aligned right now despite doing only minor things to alter his alignment, in fact - a single point of Law alignment's enough to set him off), major decisions alter your alignment by 16 points and extremely major decisions alter it by 32 points.
There's also what I like to think of as an alignment XP meter (there might be two - one for Law and one for Chaos - I don't remember), where minor actions like killing demons you have a contract with (which always gives chaos xp), summoning, contracting or fusing demons, or using healing services (kaifuku/ashram healers move you towards neutral insted of law or chaos) eventually add up until they give you a single point of chaos or law alignment.
So story decisions are exponentially more important than gameplay actions which take a while to have even a minor effect on your alignment - but they do have an effect on your alignment that adds up over time so it's important to keep it in mind.
Wait, does that mean there's more "room" in LAW (0-126, 127 points) than there is in Chaos (144-255, 112 points) for a character to be in? That's... weird, tbh. Especially with the character starting right on the edge of Law, and Neutral only being 16 points wide - that's what you say a major decision does. An extremely major decision must take you out of neutral, by these numbers. Wild.
I do want to go in unspoiled so I'd appreciate if things could be kept under a box if the discussion continues, but I'm absolutely baffled as to how Law could possibly be worse in the sequel when in this one it starts as "God tells America to nuke Japan and causes the apocalypse"
I'd say the general setup of SMT's sides are "Chaos = Bad, Law = Worse", with some nuances. (Law's rank and file are generally more pleasant than Chaos', but the fact remains is they're all usually onboard with whatever fascist apocalypse scenario God has cooked up this time.)
