Every once in a while I get on a Shin Megami Tensei kick and want to pick up some games in the series I had put down a long time ago for whatever reason (usually getting distracted by a newly released game). This time I'm mainly playing Strange Journey, and trying to finish that, but I also started playing the first Shin Megami Tensei on my YouTube stream. A few weeks ago I finally finished Soul Hackers on 3DS, and did an R/L TTP thread for that one.
Reading about people's opinions on SMTIV on the internet, it really seems that this game was pretty divisive in opinions across the SMT community. Just guessing, I would say about 30% loved it, the other 30% were disappointed in it, and the other 40% got stuck on Minotaur and gave up
.
Honestly I'm in the "loved it" camp, and there's a ton of reasons why I love it, both as a game in general, and compared to other SMT games.
The game begins in a dream sequence, similar to the first Shin Megami Tensei, but technology has come further since the Super Famicom, so it looks much prettier rather than being a wavy dungeon crawl. You enter your name, meet the law hero, Jonathan, chaos hero, Walter, and someone else.. The cool thing about this part is the foreshadowing. When you see Walter, he's standing in Infernal Tokyo, basically the "chaos" version of what would happen if chaos got it's way. You see Jonathan standing in Blasted Tokyo, what would happen if law got it's way. The last person is a little girl on a beach, asking to be revived. Once again more cool foreshadowing about the neutral ending, as in the neutral ending, the little girl is "revived" as the dome is removed from Tokyo, and turns into a beautiful adult woman, revealing herself to be the spirit of Tokyo. This early in the game though, you have no idea who this little girl is, and won't know for a long time. It's something just meant to be in the player's mind for a long time.
After the dream you talk with the protagonist's friend, it's time for the Samurai gauntlet rite. Right off the bat, you'll notice that it's interesting that in a fairly primitive civilization, these "gauntlets" are clearly a piece of technology with a touch screen, similar like one we would see in real life. The "gauntlet rite" involves someone touching the gauntlet, and hoping it "shines with the light and mystic script" The gauntlet becomes the touch screen on your 3DS System, and there's a button for you to touch. The mystic script is the Japanese characters that show up (reading "Engage") after you touch the button. Obviously, it doesn't seem like this rite is actually determined by God, but rather just by if they touch the screen correctly or not. We aren't really told why people fail the gauntlet rite though, but if I had to guess, I would say when candidates are told to "touch the gauntlet" they either do not touch the screen, or do not touch the "Engage" button on the screen, therefore it doesn't do anything. That, or the gauntlet they are using is potentially broken. This is the first instance you can see of a more primitive civilization coming into contact with technology, and not quite understanding it.
After some brief tutorials, you're introduced to Burroughs, the AI in the gauntlet. The characters in the game refer to her as a "fairy", since they have seen demons before, but do not understand the concept of Artificial Intelligence. We aren't told too much more about Burroughs's backstory, but there are a few things I wonder about it. Is she actually a demon inside each gauntlet, similar to Nemissa from Soul Hackers? She can detect demons, which seems like a strange thing for an AI to do, but then again, Tokyo was fairly futuristic when the gauntlets were created, so it's possible that technology has advanced that far. We are told later that Burroughs was installed in the gauntlets by the Counter-Demon Force in Tokyo. The Gauntlets were actually part of the Demonica suits, which were actually first seen in the series in Strange Journey, and played a large role there. Here it's more of a fleeting reference to Strange Journey, but it is cool to see. One of my favorite small details about the game though is every time you bring up the menu, the protagonist actually looks at his gauntlet and says "Burroughs!"
After more talking and introductions, it's off to Naraku! You learn there are demons here, and how to interact with them. As there are things to interact with around you, you see digital readouts pointing to each thing, such as a sign to read, and even a ledge to jump down. For the most part, early on in the game is about exploring the first few floors of Naraku, recruiting demons, fusing them, learning more and more about the game's mechanics. The atmosphere in Naraku is nice, as it gives you the feeling of actually being a cave below this statue in the palace, and it's fairly narrow, only proceeding downward.
A theme that's been very prevalent so far is the caste system in the Eastern Kingdom in Mikado. The rich are known as Luxorors, while the poor are known as Casualries. Often, Luxorors are more "snooty" at Casualries. This is evidenced quite a bit in Navarre, another Samurai who mocks the protagonist and Walter constantly, as they are both Casulries. Jonathan and Isabeau are both Luxorors, but don't take on the snooty personality. Going in deeper, you're greeted by a hooded man that makes you fight some demons, then says to go complain to Navarre further in. All that's further in is a Demon Domain, which you enter to find Navarre. The little girl from the dream is once again spotted, but remains elusive. Shortly after that, you meet a man in a wheelchair, Stephen. Stephen has been a character that has appeared in some previous games in the series, most notably SMT1. He actually wrote the demon summoning program and made this possible. Often people assume he is a reference to Stephen Hawking, which is probably true to some degree. Stephen is known to get around in mysterious ways, as he is disabled and in a wheelchair, and is now in a demon's domain. He discusses the girl, but rather cryptically, once again leaving it more of a mystery. Going on, the strong demon's room is found, and there are Samurai tied up on the wall, including Navarre! There is a boss battle, and then Navarre is free, but shortly breaks down in fear.
Going around the town, you learn about something called "literature" being passed around and people holding "Sabbaths". These things are exactly what they sound like, but neither of these terms are familiar at all to the citizens of Mikado. The literature is actually turning some people into demons it turns out! At night, there is an emergency call for Samurai to go save the people of the town of Kiccigiorgi. At first they don't want the protagonist and his friends to go, but then they allow it since it is the protagonist's hometown.
Isabeau mentions reading some kind of book called a "manga", a thing that most people that play this game would know of. She has never seen one before, so it's interesting to see her reactions as the concept was brand new to her. I'm also glad the localization didn't just change "manga" to "comic book", since it came from Tokyo, where being a manga would make much more sense.
The most interesting thing about this is the name Kiccigiorgi. There is an actual region of Tokyo called "Kichijoji", and in fact you start there in the first Shin Megami Tensei. Once again, this is most like another reference to that game, and foreshadowing that things are not all that they seem. The town is named after the region of Tokyo, but why Tokyo? What does Tokyo have to do with this place? Well we all know by the end of the game that there is a bedrock dome over Tokyo, and the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado is established on top of that. It's likely that Kiccigiorgi is above where Kichijoji is in Tokyo.
After a trek through the forest to save civilians, you meet up once again with your friend Issachar. Issachar is jealous that his friend became a Samurai and he did not. He has now given in to the Black Samurai's literature, and learns from it. Issachar realizes there is something wrong, as the kingdom is suppressing a lot of information from it's people. Issachar becomes a partial demon, and now fights the protagonist and his party.
The party meets the Black Samurai, wearing a Black Demonica and revealed to be a woman. She leaves the party behind with a gang of Lillims, and makes her escape. The party is largely ignorant of what the Black Samurai says. She however says to head to the "underground", and this term sticks around in the protagonist's mind. That night when you to go sleep, both Walter and Jonathan tell you to go to the underground. You proceed further into Naraku, and then are about to enter a room called the "Hall of the Minotaur", with very ominous doors. This is of course, the infamous Minotaur battle, and similar to battles like Matador from Nocturne, this is one that stumps many players that don't fully understand the mechanics of the series. You really have to figure out how to exploit his weakness and take him down that way, with all the extra Press Turns you are getting each time you exploit the weakness. If you can resist Fire, he will lose press turns! The only issue that comes up with this is if Walter is the additional party member that helps you out. He decides to cast Agi on him sometimes, potentially causing him to "smirk", which gives him much more damage, and he is more evasive. Thanks Walter.
One of the aspects people complained about the most about SMT4 was the artwork. Minotaur is one of the first major examples you see of a non-Kaneko demon, however this one is actually good! I really liked the design of Minotaur, with the nostrils from his bull snout forming the eye sockets for a skull face on the front, while the entire demon looks like a bull on top of a man. It's a really cool design, especially the face part.
Descending further, there are windows that show the characters a sight they have never seen before: the city of Tokyo. They mistake it for a sea of stars at the beginning, but then learn it is "The Unclean Ones Country" with their "Magic to light buildings". The terms that the characters come up with to explain things that we just know day to day in technology is always entertaining. The culture shock of no-tech into tech is a theme that is very prevalent throughout the entire game. Learning about an elevator from Burroughs, the party still thinks it is operated by magic. The next floor shows stone statues of people, soon you realize what was causing it: Medusa. Medusa was also one of the non-Kaneko demons, however this one was definitely a miss as far as artwork goes:
The issues I have with it are just too much unnecessary details. The chains, skulls in the tail, belts, only thing missing was zippers! A common complaint of the new demon art is that they look like they were drawn by a 13-year old Slipknot fanboy. They try to go on the "edgy" side way too much more than necessary. Kaneko seemed to understand "less is more" in a lot of cases. A few examples of this:
After emerging victorious against Medusa, you go all the way down into the Unclean Ones' country, Tokyo! At this point, I want to talk about one of my favorite aspects of the game: The music.
One of my favorite tracks plays right here in the world map of Tokyo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzZwLg6rwG8
In addition to that, I have a ton of other favorites from this game. First off, we have a new version of the "Arcade Street" music that dates all the way back to SMT1! It appears in almost every SMT game in some form, and the SMT4 version of it is excellent, but sadly only used on the Streetpass menu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9rb4lpcOIY
One of the quest tracks was also excellent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohAiFqvZkvE
The standard boss battle music is also great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6cSbof7Pik
There were tons of great tracks that were more atmospheric, and really set the tone of a particular area. This one plays in a few above ground places in Tokyo, and really gives you the feeling that the world has gone crazy, since you look around and see so much death and darkness, and the demons still ravage the streets, leaving the people scared in the underground districts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_kwdpjirR8
This one was played in the Infernal Ichigaya dungeon. I really love how dark and brooding it sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoyQvO9Zaew&list=PLuu7gfeeGV4TKifRVuYQCVEIU1lGJoIhG&index=81
I could go on all day about the music, it really was amazing for this game. The party moves on and discovers an underground district, as well as the shops such as the Ashura-kai's secret weapon shop. Soon enough, at the Counter-Demon Force base in Kasumigaseki, the player has their first formal run-in with the Ashura-kai. They seem like the Yakuza, but took over after the dome was placed over Tokyo. You learn throughout the game that their leader, Tayama, was a nobody before this started, and then became the leader of the most powerful organization after the dome was formed.
In the CDF base, the protagonists discover the Demonicas, and take some to use. They mistake them for the Black Samurai, but realize it was only the armor she was wearing.
A common complaint about the game was the slower pacing, which I can sort of see, however I think I know the source of that frustration: The overworld map. It's filled with extremely narrow streets, with tons of "Can I go through that or not?" moments, and little idea of which place you are actually supposed to go into, or even can go into.
A lot of the most interesting story stuff happens fairly early on, so I'm going to be much lighter on that from here on out, and only really touch on the big stuff. One thing I immediately want to talk about is Shene Duque. It's a holy ground nearby the castle town, and the party is asked to go there by sister Gabby after you have rescued the men from Kagome Tower. The name Shene Duque is interesting, as like Kiccigiorgi forest, it too might be a reference to Shinjuku, and probably located above where Shinjuku would be. On top of that, the Coccoon containing all the citizens of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado that rose into the sky before the dome was formed came out of Shinjuku National Park, and landed in what was known as Shene Duque. It's unlikely to be a coincidence that Shene Duque was named this way.
There were a lot of interesting story reveals throughout the game, however many of them you may not have noticed if you weren't paying attention or digging hard enough. One of them was the implication that Tayama, the leader of the Ashura-kai, was a pedophile. When you go into the Reverse Hills in Roppongi, you see children in all the rooms, being harvested to be turned into the red pills. One of the rooms has a little girl that says something about she will get to "marry Mr. Tayama", and before going there, you see all the children on the screen that Tayama shows you. They never straight up say it, but it is very heavily implied, and shows you just how deranged Tayama is at this point.
The leader of the Ring of Gaea, or the Gaean Cult in previous games, turned out to be none other than Lilith, who was also Yuriko, who was the Black Samurai. It was a neat throwback to how she played a similar role to Yuriko in SMT1. I thought it was interesting that the game actually gave subtle hints at this connection. Probably the biggest of which was at your first meeting with the "Black Samurai" in Kiccigiorgi forest, she summons a swarm of the same demon to charm the male characters. What demon is it? Lillim, who are said to be the children of Lilith! However, when you see her demon form, this was definitely another miss on the artwork front.
At this point, I feel like the artist was just drawing things to "add details" to her when it was really unnecessary and doesn't fit her backstory or origins at all. What is she now, a cat bird spider insect thing with womanly features? It's a really odd combination, and again, just seems like they thought too hard about this one. Kaneko always had the much simpler design of Lilith for the series:
She still resembles Yuriko to some degree. Looking at her origin, Lilith was the first wife of Adam that was kicked out of the garden of Eden. She gave into temptation and obtained knowledge that God did not want her to have. This temptation is often represented by a snake, which is commonly known in the story of Adam and Eve. The snake draped around her and snake tattoos really show off this part of her lore. Once again, simple works best for a lot of demon designs.
Something that really bothered me though was the fact that I still had a lot of questions after finishing all three endings (especially the neutral ending), but these things weren't revealed until the DLC. Some of the details were kind of important, and I wish they were discussed in the main game.
An example of this was why the history inscriptions in Mikado said that the kingdom has existed for thousands of years, yet only 25 years had passed in Tokyo. I thought that maybe it had something to do with the Coccoon taking memories of it from people, causing them to think that the whole kingdom had existed that long, but the DLC disproves this theory. It is revealed that time passes slower under the firmament over Tokyo, hence the fact that the world around Tokyo was virtually destroyed thousands of years ago, yet Tokyo had it's problems of the demons within the firmament. Masakado did this to protect the city from the ICBM strikes. A reveal like that really gives you a whole different perspective on the rest of the world in the game, as I was wondering the whole time what had happened to all the countries in the world, and everything else outside of Tokyo.
During the sequence of going to Blasted Tokyo and Infernal Tokyo, if you were paying attention to the game's backstory, there is something interesting. In both Blasted and Infernal Tokyo, you meet someone named Akira. You never meet an Akira in regular Tokyo or in Mikado. During a conversation in Blasted Tokyo, he mentions that he wants to establish a new civilization, and call it "The Eastern Kingdom of Mikado". Now this seems kind of random, or does it? If you read the inscriptions back in Mikado, it talks about how it was established by a King Aquila. Given everything we learn about Akira in the other versions of Tokyo, we can infer that Aquila is most likely the regular version of Akira, especially since the names are so similar.
Late in the game, you have a vision and encounter "The White" who think that you should destroy the Yamato Reactor to destroy the world. You can do this if you want, and even Burroughs becomes a bit sorrowful, saying things like "Goodbye master..." However something really bothered me about this optional "Bad Ending" was that it was effectively the same ending as the Law Ending, just someone different told you to do the same thing. In the Law Ending, Merkabah tells you you have to go destroy the Yamato Reactor, as humanity is too unclean to be saved, and this will wipe out everything, including yourself and Merkabah. The Law Ending of this game always felt like such a copout to me, with all the talk of a society governed by law, yet humanity would be enslaved. Obliterating everything isn't exactly what most people would have in mind when they think of a Law Ending. I was really expecting something more along the lines of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado enslaving the people of Tokyo. Given that Tokyo would still be under Masakado's dome, they had nowhere to go, and were now enslaved too so had less freedom than they had before.
The Chaos ending was definitely more fitting of what I would imagine a Chaos ending be. First of all, you first meet Lucifer as just a girl in a schoolgirl outfit named Hikaru. Her name isn't any dead giveaway to her being Lucifer, unlike Gabby being Gabriel, or Louisa Ferre in Strange Journey. However something seems odd about her, as she walks around Tokyo in just a school uniform and her bookbag. She's not dressed like a hunter, and she seems awfully cheerful, yet has a mischevious look in her eyes all the time. You can definitely tell she is not normal, but you might not guess that she is actually Lucifer. She likely dresses this way because she wants to preserve Tokyo the way it is under the dome, and take over the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado as well, so she can rule with the protagonist. At the end, you see her in Mikado and the townspeople begin to fight with each other for who will still live on. All during this, Hikaru/Lucifer asks the protagonist to rule these people.
To be continued in post #2...
Reading about people's opinions on SMTIV on the internet, it really seems that this game was pretty divisive in opinions across the SMT community. Just guessing, I would say about 30% loved it, the other 30% were disappointed in it, and the other 40% got stuck on Minotaur and gave up
.Honestly I'm in the "loved it" camp, and there's a ton of reasons why I love it, both as a game in general, and compared to other SMT games.
The game begins in a dream sequence, similar to the first Shin Megami Tensei, but technology has come further since the Super Famicom, so it looks much prettier rather than being a wavy dungeon crawl. You enter your name, meet the law hero, Jonathan, chaos hero, Walter, and someone else.. The cool thing about this part is the foreshadowing. When you see Walter, he's standing in Infernal Tokyo, basically the "chaos" version of what would happen if chaos got it's way. You see Jonathan standing in Blasted Tokyo, what would happen if law got it's way. The last person is a little girl on a beach, asking to be revived. Once again more cool foreshadowing about the neutral ending, as in the neutral ending, the little girl is "revived" as the dome is removed from Tokyo, and turns into a beautiful adult woman, revealing herself to be the spirit of Tokyo. This early in the game though, you have no idea who this little girl is, and won't know for a long time. It's something just meant to be in the player's mind for a long time.
After the dream you talk with the protagonist's friend, it's time for the Samurai gauntlet rite. Right off the bat, you'll notice that it's interesting that in a fairly primitive civilization, these "gauntlets" are clearly a piece of technology with a touch screen, similar like one we would see in real life. The "gauntlet rite" involves someone touching the gauntlet, and hoping it "shines with the light and mystic script" The gauntlet becomes the touch screen on your 3DS System, and there's a button for you to touch. The mystic script is the Japanese characters that show up (reading "Engage") after you touch the button. Obviously, it doesn't seem like this rite is actually determined by God, but rather just by if they touch the screen correctly or not. We aren't really told why people fail the gauntlet rite though, but if I had to guess, I would say when candidates are told to "touch the gauntlet" they either do not touch the screen, or do not touch the "Engage" button on the screen, therefore it doesn't do anything. That, or the gauntlet they are using is potentially broken. This is the first instance you can see of a more primitive civilization coming into contact with technology, and not quite understanding it.
After some brief tutorials, you're introduced to Burroughs, the AI in the gauntlet. The characters in the game refer to her as a "fairy", since they have seen demons before, but do not understand the concept of Artificial Intelligence. We aren't told too much more about Burroughs's backstory, but there are a few things I wonder about it. Is she actually a demon inside each gauntlet, similar to Nemissa from Soul Hackers? She can detect demons, which seems like a strange thing for an AI to do, but then again, Tokyo was fairly futuristic when the gauntlets were created, so it's possible that technology has advanced that far. We are told later that Burroughs was installed in the gauntlets by the Counter-Demon Force in Tokyo. The Gauntlets were actually part of the Demonica suits, which were actually first seen in the series in Strange Journey, and played a large role there. Here it's more of a fleeting reference to Strange Journey, but it is cool to see. One of my favorite small details about the game though is every time you bring up the menu, the protagonist actually looks at his gauntlet and says "Burroughs!"
After more talking and introductions, it's off to Naraku! You learn there are demons here, and how to interact with them. As there are things to interact with around you, you see digital readouts pointing to each thing, such as a sign to read, and even a ledge to jump down. For the most part, early on in the game is about exploring the first few floors of Naraku, recruiting demons, fusing them, learning more and more about the game's mechanics. The atmosphere in Naraku is nice, as it gives you the feeling of actually being a cave below this statue in the palace, and it's fairly narrow, only proceeding downward.
A theme that's been very prevalent so far is the caste system in the Eastern Kingdom in Mikado. The rich are known as Luxorors, while the poor are known as Casualries. Often, Luxorors are more "snooty" at Casualries. This is evidenced quite a bit in Navarre, another Samurai who mocks the protagonist and Walter constantly, as they are both Casulries. Jonathan and Isabeau are both Luxorors, but don't take on the snooty personality. Going in deeper, you're greeted by a hooded man that makes you fight some demons, then says to go complain to Navarre further in. All that's further in is a Demon Domain, which you enter to find Navarre. The little girl from the dream is once again spotted, but remains elusive. Shortly after that, you meet a man in a wheelchair, Stephen. Stephen has been a character that has appeared in some previous games in the series, most notably SMT1. He actually wrote the demon summoning program and made this possible. Often people assume he is a reference to Stephen Hawking, which is probably true to some degree. Stephen is known to get around in mysterious ways, as he is disabled and in a wheelchair, and is now in a demon's domain. He discusses the girl, but rather cryptically, once again leaving it more of a mystery. Going on, the strong demon's room is found, and there are Samurai tied up on the wall, including Navarre! There is a boss battle, and then Navarre is free, but shortly breaks down in fear.
Going around the town, you learn about something called "literature" being passed around and people holding "Sabbaths". These things are exactly what they sound like, but neither of these terms are familiar at all to the citizens of Mikado. The literature is actually turning some people into demons it turns out! At night, there is an emergency call for Samurai to go save the people of the town of Kiccigiorgi. At first they don't want the protagonist and his friends to go, but then they allow it since it is the protagonist's hometown.
Isabeau mentions reading some kind of book called a "manga", a thing that most people that play this game would know of. She has never seen one before, so it's interesting to see her reactions as the concept was brand new to her. I'm also glad the localization didn't just change "manga" to "comic book", since it came from Tokyo, where being a manga would make much more sense.
The most interesting thing about this is the name Kiccigiorgi. There is an actual region of Tokyo called "Kichijoji", and in fact you start there in the first Shin Megami Tensei. Once again, this is most like another reference to that game, and foreshadowing that things are not all that they seem. The town is named after the region of Tokyo, but why Tokyo? What does Tokyo have to do with this place? Well we all know by the end of the game that there is a bedrock dome over Tokyo, and the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado is established on top of that. It's likely that Kiccigiorgi is above where Kichijoji is in Tokyo.
After a trek through the forest to save civilians, you meet up once again with your friend Issachar. Issachar is jealous that his friend became a Samurai and he did not. He has now given in to the Black Samurai's literature, and learns from it. Issachar realizes there is something wrong, as the kingdom is suppressing a lot of information from it's people. Issachar becomes a partial demon, and now fights the protagonist and his party.
The party meets the Black Samurai, wearing a Black Demonica and revealed to be a woman. She leaves the party behind with a gang of Lillims, and makes her escape. The party is largely ignorant of what the Black Samurai says. She however says to head to the "underground", and this term sticks around in the protagonist's mind. That night when you to go sleep, both Walter and Jonathan tell you to go to the underground. You proceed further into Naraku, and then are about to enter a room called the "Hall of the Minotaur", with very ominous doors. This is of course, the infamous Minotaur battle, and similar to battles like Matador from Nocturne, this is one that stumps many players that don't fully understand the mechanics of the series. You really have to figure out how to exploit his weakness and take him down that way, with all the extra Press Turns you are getting each time you exploit the weakness. If you can resist Fire, he will lose press turns! The only issue that comes up with this is if Walter is the additional party member that helps you out. He decides to cast Agi on him sometimes, potentially causing him to "smirk", which gives him much more damage, and he is more evasive. Thanks Walter.
One of the aspects people complained about the most about SMT4 was the artwork. Minotaur is one of the first major examples you see of a non-Kaneko demon, however this one is actually good! I really liked the design of Minotaur, with the nostrils from his bull snout forming the eye sockets for a skull face on the front, while the entire demon looks like a bull on top of a man. It's a really cool design, especially the face part.
Minotaur goes down, and then things get really interseting. At the time of release, the way Atlus marketed the game, they mostly focused on the setting being in the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, but gameplay footage would occasionally show Tokyo, and mention it. However they did not expressly say how you might end up in Tokyo, which was the most intersting part. Before I played the game, I was expecting some kind of portal to be at the bottom of Naraku that would take you to some kind of "mirage" version of Tokyo. This next part was an excellent build up to what really proved me wrong. You see construction equipment, scaffolding, and even signs written in the "mystic script" (Japanese). These signs warn about "angels" coming down from above. In one room you find guns, and Burroughs explains what guns are, since no one in the party has ever even seen one before. You find the first Terminal, and then learn there was one of these back in the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado! The way the characters react to all this, it's just something they don't understand because they have never seen technology quite like this before. Artifacts you find start to become things we in real life know as every day objects. Once you get into Tokyo, I highly suggest reading the descriptions on artifacts. You will at least get a good chuckle out of them.
Descending further, there are windows that show the characters a sight they have never seen before: the city of Tokyo. They mistake it for a sea of stars at the beginning, but then learn it is "The Unclean Ones Country" with their "Magic to light buildings". The terms that the characters come up with to explain things that we just know day to day in technology is always entertaining. The culture shock of no-tech into tech is a theme that is very prevalent throughout the entire game. Learning about an elevator from Burroughs, the party still thinks it is operated by magic. The next floor shows stone statues of people, soon you realize what was causing it: Medusa. Medusa was also one of the non-Kaneko demons, however this one was definitely a miss as far as artwork goes:
The issues I have with it are just too much unnecessary details. The chains, skulls in the tail, belts, only thing missing was zippers! A common complaint of the new demon art is that they look like they were drawn by a 13-year old Slipknot fanboy. They try to go on the "edgy" side way too much more than necessary. Kaneko seemed to understand "less is more" in a lot of cases. A few examples of this:
After emerging victorious against Medusa, you go all the way down into the Unclean Ones' country, Tokyo! At this point, I want to talk about one of my favorite aspects of the game: The music.
One of my favorite tracks plays right here in the world map of Tokyo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzZwLg6rwG8
In addition to that, I have a ton of other favorites from this game. First off, we have a new version of the "Arcade Street" music that dates all the way back to SMT1! It appears in almost every SMT game in some form, and the SMT4 version of it is excellent, but sadly only used on the Streetpass menu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9rb4lpcOIY
One of the quest tracks was also excellent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohAiFqvZkvE
The standard boss battle music is also great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6cSbof7Pik
There were tons of great tracks that were more atmospheric, and really set the tone of a particular area. This one plays in a few above ground places in Tokyo, and really gives you the feeling that the world has gone crazy, since you look around and see so much death and darkness, and the demons still ravage the streets, leaving the people scared in the underground districts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_kwdpjirR8
This one was played in the Infernal Ichigaya dungeon. I really love how dark and brooding it sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoyQvO9Zaew&list=PLuu7gfeeGV4TKifRVuYQCVEIU1lGJoIhG&index=81
I could go on all day about the music, it really was amazing for this game. The party moves on and discovers an underground district, as well as the shops such as the Ashura-kai's secret weapon shop. Soon enough, at the Counter-Demon Force base in Kasumigaseki, the player has their first formal run-in with the Ashura-kai. They seem like the Yakuza, but took over after the dome was placed over Tokyo. You learn throughout the game that their leader, Tayama, was a nobody before this started, and then became the leader of the most powerful organization after the dome was formed.
In the CDF base, the protagonists discover the Demonicas, and take some to use. They mistake them for the Black Samurai, but realize it was only the armor she was wearing.
A common complaint about the game was the slower pacing, which I can sort of see, however I think I know the source of that frustration: The overworld map. It's filled with extremely narrow streets, with tons of "Can I go through that or not?" moments, and little idea of which place you are actually supposed to go into, or even can go into.
A lot of the most interesting story stuff happens fairly early on, so I'm going to be much lighter on that from here on out, and only really touch on the big stuff. One thing I immediately want to talk about is Shene Duque. It's a holy ground nearby the castle town, and the party is asked to go there by sister Gabby after you have rescued the men from Kagome Tower. The name Shene Duque is interesting, as like Kiccigiorgi forest, it too might be a reference to Shinjuku, and probably located above where Shinjuku would be. On top of that, the Coccoon containing all the citizens of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado that rose into the sky before the dome was formed came out of Shinjuku National Park, and landed in what was known as Shene Duque. It's unlikely to be a coincidence that Shene Duque was named this way.
There were a lot of interesting story reveals throughout the game, however many of them you may not have noticed if you weren't paying attention or digging hard enough. One of them was the implication that Tayama, the leader of the Ashura-kai, was a pedophile. When you go into the Reverse Hills in Roppongi, you see children in all the rooms, being harvested to be turned into the red pills. One of the rooms has a little girl that says something about she will get to "marry Mr. Tayama", and before going there, you see all the children on the screen that Tayama shows you. They never straight up say it, but it is very heavily implied, and shows you just how deranged Tayama is at this point.
The leader of the Ring of Gaea, or the Gaean Cult in previous games, turned out to be none other than Lilith, who was also Yuriko, who was the Black Samurai. It was a neat throwback to how she played a similar role to Yuriko in SMT1. I thought it was interesting that the game actually gave subtle hints at this connection. Probably the biggest of which was at your first meeting with the "Black Samurai" in Kiccigiorgi forest, she summons a swarm of the same demon to charm the male characters. What demon is it? Lillim, who are said to be the children of Lilith! However, when you see her demon form, this was definitely another miss on the artwork front.
At this point, I feel like the artist was just drawing things to "add details" to her when it was really unnecessary and doesn't fit her backstory or origins at all. What is she now, a cat bird spider insect thing with womanly features? It's a really odd combination, and again, just seems like they thought too hard about this one. Kaneko always had the much simpler design of Lilith for the series:
She still resembles Yuriko to some degree. Looking at her origin, Lilith was the first wife of Adam that was kicked out of the garden of Eden. She gave into temptation and obtained knowledge that God did not want her to have. This temptation is often represented by a snake, which is commonly known in the story of Adam and Eve. The snake draped around her and snake tattoos really show off this part of her lore. Once again, simple works best for a lot of demon designs.
Something that really bothered me though was the fact that I still had a lot of questions after finishing all three endings (especially the neutral ending), but these things weren't revealed until the DLC. Some of the details were kind of important, and I wish they were discussed in the main game.
An example of this was why the history inscriptions in Mikado said that the kingdom has existed for thousands of years, yet only 25 years had passed in Tokyo. I thought that maybe it had something to do with the Coccoon taking memories of it from people, causing them to think that the whole kingdom had existed that long, but the DLC disproves this theory. It is revealed that time passes slower under the firmament over Tokyo, hence the fact that the world around Tokyo was virtually destroyed thousands of years ago, yet Tokyo had it's problems of the demons within the firmament. Masakado did this to protect the city from the ICBM strikes. A reveal like that really gives you a whole different perspective on the rest of the world in the game, as I was wondering the whole time what had happened to all the countries in the world, and everything else outside of Tokyo.
During the sequence of going to Blasted Tokyo and Infernal Tokyo, if you were paying attention to the game's backstory, there is something interesting. In both Blasted and Infernal Tokyo, you meet someone named Akira. You never meet an Akira in regular Tokyo or in Mikado. During a conversation in Blasted Tokyo, he mentions that he wants to establish a new civilization, and call it "The Eastern Kingdom of Mikado". Now this seems kind of random, or does it? If you read the inscriptions back in Mikado, it talks about how it was established by a King Aquila. Given everything we learn about Akira in the other versions of Tokyo, we can infer that Aquila is most likely the regular version of Akira, especially since the names are so similar.
Late in the game, you have a vision and encounter "The White" who think that you should destroy the Yamato Reactor to destroy the world. You can do this if you want, and even Burroughs becomes a bit sorrowful, saying things like "Goodbye master..." However something really bothered me about this optional "Bad Ending" was that it was effectively the same ending as the Law Ending, just someone different told you to do the same thing. In the Law Ending, Merkabah tells you you have to go destroy the Yamato Reactor, as humanity is too unclean to be saved, and this will wipe out everything, including yourself and Merkabah. The Law Ending of this game always felt like such a copout to me, with all the talk of a society governed by law, yet humanity would be enslaved. Obliterating everything isn't exactly what most people would have in mind when they think of a Law Ending. I was really expecting something more along the lines of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado enslaving the people of Tokyo. Given that Tokyo would still be under Masakado's dome, they had nowhere to go, and were now enslaved too so had less freedom than they had before.
The Chaos ending was definitely more fitting of what I would imagine a Chaos ending be. First of all, you first meet Lucifer as just a girl in a schoolgirl outfit named Hikaru. Her name isn't any dead giveaway to her being Lucifer, unlike Gabby being Gabriel, or Louisa Ferre in Strange Journey. However something seems odd about her, as she walks around Tokyo in just a school uniform and her bookbag. She's not dressed like a hunter, and she seems awfully cheerful, yet has a mischevious look in her eyes all the time. You can definitely tell she is not normal, but you might not guess that she is actually Lucifer. She likely dresses this way because she wants to preserve Tokyo the way it is under the dome, and take over the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado as well, so she can rule with the protagonist. At the end, you see her in Mikado and the townspeople begin to fight with each other for who will still live on. All during this, Hikaru/Lucifer asks the protagonist to rule these people.
To be continued in post #2...
