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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Table of contents.

• Demon passwords

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is the next title in the Shin Megami Tensei series, and the first in the main series to be developed for a hand-held system (the Nintendo DS ). The game engine is based on the engine used for the Etrian Odyssey series of games. The game features first-person dungeon crawling and early screenshots show battle scenes similar to Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor , but with animated enemies.

Story [ edit ]

A large distortion appears at the South Pole. Reported as a "ferro-magnetic blizzard", it is in fact a plasma wall of unknown origin which destroys everything that comes into contact with it, and it is slowly expanding. Dubbed the "Schwarzwelt" by the scientists studying it, the few probes that manage to get through send back bizarre, surreal images. Four "ships" - vehicles capable of travel by land, sea, and air - are sent; the Red Sprite, the Blue Jet, the Elve, and the Gigantic, are sent to investigate under orders of the United Nations. All are crewed by the best soldiers and scientists and equipped with the latest technology every nation on the Earth can provide. Their mission: find out what is causing the Schwarzwelt, and put an end to it before it endangers all life on Earth.

• Shin Megami Tensei
• HD Remaster
• IV: Apocalypse
• Giten Megami Tensei: Tokyo Mokushiroku
• Devil Summoner
• Soul Hackers
• Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army
• 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
• Soul Hackers 2
• Overclocked
• Record Breaker
• Devil Children
• Nintendo DS
• Guides at completion stage 1
• Single player

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Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux

Players who embark on this supernatural sci-fi tale will find a serious, thought-provoking narrative intermixed with challenging dungeon-crawling gameplay and an addictive demon collecting and demon fusion mechanic.

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• 🇪🇺 Deep Silver

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux is exactly what is advertised: a strange, phenomenal journey into the unknown. Players who embark on this supernatural sci-fi tale will find a serious, thought-provoking narrative intermixed with challenging dungeon-crawling gameplay and an addictive demon collecting and demon fusion mechanic.

Set sometime in the Earth’s near future, a mysterious dimensional phenomenon known as the Schwarzwelt appears in Antarctica and threatens to very quickly engulf the entire world. An international investigation team comprised of the best and brightest is sent to investigate the Schwarzwelt from the inside. They end up finding angels and demons waging war on one another for the fate of both the world and the humans who reside there. In true Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) fashion, the crucial decision of who to side with falls on you, the player, as a nameless member of the investigation team. Will you ultimately pick a route with either the more lawful-minded angels, the chaotic demons, or have humanity solve their own problems?

The narrative in SMT: Strange Journey Redux is a thrilling, intense one about extremes. The idea that humanity brought the Schwarzwelt on themselves through their tendency towards self-destructive actions was compelling, and I found it especially relevant given so many of the more troubling headlines we see today. Personally, I loved the science fiction undertones intermixed with the supernatural, though I know that is certainly a bit different from the norm as far as SMT storylines go. Another thing that is unique is that the crew all consists of older, more mature characters, which I felt fit the general tone of the game’s storyline really well.

Because this game is so focused on extremes, all of your decisions and the endings tend to never be that simple or easy. As such, the characters represent philosophical ideals instead of feeling like actual people. I found them to be likable, but also hard to approach. Zelenin and Jimenez both have moments when they stand out, but I often found those moments to be when their actions almost went counter to the routes they represented (Law and Chaos, specifically); for example, Jimenez’s fondness for Bugaboo and the main character’s friendship, despite the “only the strong survive” mentality he so often took. Gore is an even more extreme example of this philosophical modeling, given his otherworldly connections later on in the plot. Even Alex, who seems to represent humanity’s selfishness even in the face of extreme change and danger, can sometimes suffer from this. I came to like the characters all in their own ways and I was truthfully torn when it came to having to decide their fates, but it is in a different sort of manner to how you might grow attached to, say, the Persona characters (to name another SMT spinoff). The only characters that truly seem to be “real” in a sense are the crew members of the Red Sprite, and they’re pretty minor in the plot’s grand scheme.

Dungeon-crawling and demon fusion are the staples behind SMT: Strange Journey Redux’s challenging gameplay. This is best exemplified in the plot itself, as the player’s character wears a special suit of armor called a Demonica. This suit gives the player access to the Demon Summoning Program, thus giving them the ability to summon and control demons to fight in the party. Having a strong set of demons at your side is invaluable in the trials that await gamers over the course of SMT: Strange Journey Redux. Demons are acquired by one of three ways: talking to a particular demon during a battle in a demon negotiation; fusing existing demons in your roster together in order to create a new demon that inherits the skills of its predecessors; or generating passwords that summon demons you can then put into your party lineup. Players can even share these passwords with fellow gamers, so others may call forth your tailored demons during their own playthrough if they desire. Demon negotiations are quite a bit of work as every demon has its own distinct personality. Winning a demon over during a negotiation is no easy feat, but it is definitely worth trying if you wish to use acquired demons in the fusion process since you can create some truly powerful allies! You can spend a great deal of time fusing demons together, especially if you’re looking for a future demon to inherit a particularly useful skill or ability. I found the demon collecting and fusion mechanics to be highly addictive, and I put quite a bit of thought and strategy behind my reasoning for fusing certain demons together since I always needed to be mindful of which skills or statistics would work best in a particular dungeon or boss fight. While I didn’t take full advantage of the demon password system until the final portion of the game, I truly appreciated its implementation during some very challenging boss fights.

Dungeon-crawling in SMT: Strange Journey Redux can be a time-consuming affair as every new map is complex and often features more pathways and puzzles than one can shake a stick at. Adding to the nuances already in play in these puzzle-laden expeditions is the fact that the player’s character is tasked with retrieving Forma, a special item that is either found lying around the various dungeon areas or that is being held by hostile demons. Forma allows you to gain access to new items and equipment, which is vitally important as the only way your character’s abilities and skillsets improve or alter is through upgrading your Demonica and weaponry. Some of these upgrades include special Apps for the Demonica that gives the player entry to areas of dungeons that otherwise would be completely blocked off. These dungeon altering special Apps may simply unlock doors or deactivate traps, or they may shift the layout of an entire area so that you gain access to new terrain.

It is easy to look at the sheer amount of things to do in SMT: Strange Journey Redux and feel overwhelmed, but every new puzzle blocking the way has a cleverly crafted solution waiting to be uncovered. I often found myself getting overly frustrated with a dungeon’s design or the tediousness associated with level-grinding, and had to shut off my 3DS for a while to avoid throwing it against a wall. Then when I’d go back a little while later, I was in sheer awe when I figured out what I needed to do in order to actually advance. There are certain areas that are much more frustrating than others (looking at you, Eridanus), but the sense of accomplishment and relief I experienced when I surpassed those challenges made me feel downright giddy. Thankfully, while there are more traditional save points populating the dungeons, the game allows for a quicksave feature when you’re out on the field, which is great for those with only a limited amount of time to play. I found that to be a very handheld-friendly feature, especially since you will no doubt be spending quite a bit of time level-grinding in each new area.

As Strange Journey Redux is an enhanced 3DS port of a 2009 DS title, there is new content to be had: new demons were added to the existing roster, Japanese voice acting was included, and the character designs were revamped. The in-game graphics are serviceable and haven’t been altered much from the original Nintendo DS release, but the updated character artwork and illustrated scenes are quite gorgeous. The musical score, both tracks from the original release and the new route pieces, are well-done and add to the atmosphere of the game wonderfully. Naturally, the biggest addition is the extra story content as the game’s total endings are brought up from the original three (Law, Chaos, Neutral) to six (New Law, New Chaos, and New Neutral). Because the storyline is built upon moral and philosophical extremes, the new story content expands on that notion to make further commentary on the original game’s narrative and endings. In a way, it’s a creative approach to the additional plotlines, though it isn’t without its fair share of weaknesses either.

Perhaps the biggest of these weaknesses is the fact that the Redux content is largely unconnected to the main game. Newcomer Alex does in fact show up in the original story a few times, but most of her scenes are entirely skippable if one opts to not do the Womb of Grief dungeon, easily Redux’s biggest addition. The Womb of Grief has levels that can only be advanced depending on where the player is in the main story and what Apps are available to you, but going back to it time and again feels as though it takes you out of the main plot. The Womb of Grief also has several dungeon features found throughout the main quest’s dungeons, such as warp puzzles and invisible floors, though very rarely do they feel as well-implemented as they do in the main game’s areas. I often felt like taking the time to traverse this lengthy optional dungeon was a chore, at least up until the later portions when everything comes together in both the main plot and Alex’s quest.

That being said, partaking in SMT: Strange Journey Redux’s new content is the only way to access the new endings, so it is worthwhile it if you wish to see them instead of any of the previous ones. As with the old endings, the new ones are sure to garner mixed reactions from gamers. I reached the New Neutral Ending myself on a blind playthrough, though I apparently teetered quite a bit between Law and Chaos with my decisions. I knew the New Neutral Ending wasn’t quite as well-liked by some compared to the previous Neutral ending, but I rather enjoyed the realistic way it covered the final story moments of the game and the way it approached my character’s moral neutrality. Someone might not like the new routes at all, or vice-versa. The endings are purely up to one’s interpretation, however the fact that there are now six endings is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Special mention should also be made of the new final boss, whom I came to have quite a few feelings for as a result of several lengthy and difficult first attempts. Eventually, I devised a strategy that worked well against them, but I certainly felt I’d earned that New Neutral Ending when all was said and done!

All in all, I really enjoyed the time I spent with SMT: Strange Journey Redux. The plot and characters really make you think about philosophy and morality and, as a result, I became addicted to playing just a “little more” every time I saw another story scene. It’s a game that stayed with me well after having finished it, and the sense of accomplishment that I felt at surpassing the many challenges that awaited me during my playthrough was incredible. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux isn’t a game for everyone, but those with the patience and resolve to trek into the Schwarzwelt will find a journey well worth taking.

Excellent choice-based philosophical narrative, well-implemented strategic gameplay, overcoming challenging dungeons is rewarding, addicting demon collecting and fusing.

New story content not seamlessly intermixed, perception of endings might be hit or miss, challenges can be daunting, tedious level-grinding.

Bottom Line

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux's challenging gameplay might not be for everyone, but those it does appeal to will find a well-crafted dungeon-crawling experience with a thought-provoking narrative.

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Video Game Walkthrough Guides FAQs

Strange Journey Walkthrough: Carina Sector

Carina Sector : Sector Code C

Lots of new things to check out. HP Regen I , Enemy Begone , and Fracastoro are all available (though you may be running out of capacity for sub-apps.)  All kinds of new weapons and armor, though for the weapons it is up to you whether you prefer rolling the dice on a weaker weapon ( Athame Dagger ) with high upside (3 attacks).

Before entering Carina Sector, you may wish to acquire the recipe for one of the special fusions ; Tyrant Mitra . To fuse Tyrant Mitra you will need to be level 25, and have Fallen Bifrons (16), Night Fomorian (16), and Jaki Ippon-Datara (14) . You will find them around floor 3-4 and higher of Bootes Sector.

Many new enemies that will give you trouble if you have not been upgrading your Demon’s consistently. New enemies are always harder anyways since you are experimenting against the unknown. Head south and east for a locked door, a deceased crewman and a Recovery Core x3 forma. West of here for an AT Carite x1 . Look for another east path just north of here that is long but leads to a Muscle Drink x1 treasure. North a bit more and east for a route that leads to stairs going up.

In the door and then Jimenez sees a contraption. Space Manipulation point confirmed…Error! Nothing you can do here with your current applications. Return down the stairs and now check out the north area of the 1F. A Recovery Core x3 forma is here, along with a Knockout Gas x3 treasure. In the northwest corner is a DF Carite x1 . Take that east route along the north wall. Along the way, grab the Miracle Core x3 . East as you get out for a new area.

Within is Mastema . You can say whether you trust Mastema or not, and then re-enter to see that Mastema is just going to hang out here for the time being. South of that room for an AT Carite x1 . Go west down the two-square path to speak to a floating pig saying that Master Horkos is eating a ton of food today. If you take that middle path back west you will see another demon talking about Master Horkos’ eating. Anyway, in this big area as you go south you will see a few more locked doors, and then a path going west (at the far south) that leads to stairs going down. Also a path going up to the east. We’ll go to these in a bit, but if  you go to the far north you can first heal up (west path after going all the way north) or hit the elevator just east of that. Elevator takes you to 4F, which consequently takes you to a terminal. Might be a good time to return, you may be able to buy something decent now like a Gustible Vest .

Back to the southeast of 1F now. Take that path going up first. Go north and west for an Enemy Search – a Karasu Tengu and Kuda . Back south and go up the stairs to Carina 3F. The north route here looks like a dead end but the wall at the north has a locked door to the east. Up the stairs again to 4F. Looks like this is the production area. Take the east route a long ways and you will come to Amrita Soda x2 . And that’s it, so head back down to the basement.

Arthur interrupts to say he found the location of Ship 3. As you go north through the door here in Carina B1F,  you see that it is pitch dark. Only way to know where to go is to ‘feel’ your way through by finding the walls. You start by having to go all the way north and all the way east. Then go north three spaces, and west all the way for a door. South for AC Carite x2 and north for a Haunt Plasm x1 and Bead x2 . Time to head back into the dark area again. Go east all the way, north all the way, west all the way, north all the way, east a few squares and then north. Take this east through a door for AT Carite x2 .

Back to the dark area. West all the way then south three spots. You should be able to head north, west or east at this intersection. Head east a few squares to reach a door. East as you get through, then north for a Terminal. South through another door, and now you are in the dark area once more. Immediately go west as far as you can, then south a few spots until you see a door.

South all the way and west all the way to see good old Jack Frost . He wants an Ice Vest to get back at this demon. New EX Mission: The snowman’s revenge . We’ll have to get one and deliver it shortly. Meanwhile, head north and take the Mental Drink x2 . Back to the door and the dark area. Look for a path going south right in line with the red exclamation mark. Enter the door.

We see the Elve, Ship 3 , but it has undergone some odd changes. It seems to have turned into Horkos, Glutton of Hell , or rather Horkos has sucked the Elve in and consumed it, and is now using it as armor. Then the bugaboo demon heads out and is absorbed too. You can choose to stay if you like but you’ll lose another 20 HP. Time to head out.

Go visit Mastema in that room on 1F of Carina. Mastema has a way of fusing a certain crystal to your weapons, but needs some things first to carry this out. New Main Mission: Mastema’s Request . I already had a Hathor in the Compendium to buy but had to input a password to get Wilder Jueyuan . Beast and Snake tangle is the password. If you want Hathor it is “Nymph and Angel harem”. Return to Mastema and hand over Hathor and Jueyuan. After this there is a scene with Mastema and Zelenin . The two demons are then fused into a crystal, which we now are calling the Shibboleth . You then acquire the Shibboleth in hopes of using it as a weapon to damage Horkos. And as a means of protecting Zelenin, Mastema sends an ‘angel’ demon with her, Power the Divine. Main Mission: Mastema’s Request complete.

Go over to Irving at the Lab and you will hand over that Shibboleth. You now have the Horkos Buster . Rest up and head back to the basement, and shoot that Horkos Buster at Horkos. His bond with the Elve Ship 3 will grow weaker. Horkos then knocks Jimenez back and runs away. As you leave, Zelenin sends in that Horkos has moved to the room above (where Mastema previously was). Make your way back and then again we see Horkos, still fused to the Elve. Shoot as soon as you can as Jimenez will distract him. Horkos flees once more but drops some things; Chakra Pot x1, Sacrifice x1 and Findite , a rare forma.

Back to Irving to learn more about that Findite Forma . This will now enhance the unlock feature of your Main App; you now have Unlock B . With Unlock B we can open doors previously inaccessible; including some on Antlia Sector A and Bootes Sector B . We’ll take a detour to open these doors in those previous sectors, though if you wish to skip ahead to the main guide just pass the next four paragraphs.

If you are going back to Antlia , go to the far north wall on Antlia 1F. Use the Unlock B to go in the door. Then go straight north (another locked door in the northeast that you still cannot open) and then go west. North for another locked door and south all the way for yet another locked door. Head west instead and talk to the High Pixie . This was the regular Pixie earlier but now she has grown into this High Pixie. She says she wants faeries here and then first asks for a Goblin . New EX Mission; Faerie Land establishment I. Quickly summon a Goblin and then deliver that Goblin to High Pixie. EX Mission Faerie land establishment I is complete and you get a Sleeping Stone x1 as a reward. Nothing else you can do here as the rooms behind her are full of nothing.

Now to Bootes to look for Unlock B doors. Head to the northeast of Bootes to find one of the doors (but outside of the Bootes Palace). Two treasures within; 1500 Macca and Bead x1 . Go southeast of here and in the corner is another door you can now unlock. You will find some Forma, and the God of Wine, Dionysus . Accept his mission and he will mention a poisonous wine, distilled from the feather of a vicious bird named Zhen . Turns out we will need to negotiate one of these pristine feathers from a Zhen, you cannot kill the bird first. New EX Mission; Death distilled .

Nothing to do with that yet so head to the southwest of this region. Three demons will have you ambushed. Dawson and some other strike team members save you. Mike and Keema are also here. Agree to help them but the enemies are onto you already; EX Mission: Escape Plan has now commenced. Take the right door first to evade the enemies. Next, the left one and then the back door. Finally, the right door to make your way out. But you hear a violin; it is Fiend David, he who plays the tune of death. Having some experience through Carina Sector, you should be able to handle a tough enemy like this. Tyranny from Wendigo and Mitra was a big help, and David is weak against Zio so load up on lightning-users. After victory, EX Mission Escape plan is finished. Death Omen x1 is your reward. Return this to Irving and along with the other Forma, you should now have Enemy Lullaby and Fiend Converter sub apps available. Upon buying Fiend Converter you will unlock Fiend David for fusion creation.

Enter the Bootes palace for the final Unlock type B doors. Go to the east end of 4F to find a door that you can go east through. A Summon Stone x1 is within. Up the stairs now and take the door on 5F at the south end. Lots of lava here, so just go south and look east for Sacrifice x1 . Go up a few stairs to 7F and then towards the west part of 7F. This will allow you to go down staircases on the west end to 5F where there are two Unlock type B doors. One has a Bead Chain x1 and the other has Ag Incense x1 (along with AT Bootite II x1 forma .

Now return to Carina Sector . There are Unlock type B doors here that we can search out now that we have this on our Main App. Start off by going south on 1F Carina and then go through the yellow-tape door here going east. DF Carite x2 is within and then you can go east through that door for a shortcut. East a few more steps for another door to scan through. You will be able to get the Recovery Core x5 south of you. Take the north route going east to speak with another demon talking about the amount of production they are going through.

East more and you have a few options. A door going east and then a door going north. East is a Terminal. Take the north door and follow that path west, south a tad, east and south to a Soma Drop x1 , 32o0 Macca , and Revival Bead x2 . Stairs going northeast, so climb them to a different part of Carina 2F. West and south through a door, and then east and south for a heal spot. Take that southwest route to see Horkos , still barely fused to that Elve Ship. Fire that Horkos Buster once more and Horkos will be in bad shape. Still, he manages to flee with the Elve Ship. You obtain a Bead Chain x1 , Vi Incense x1 and then MacCleary calls in to say he seems to have something like a signal from the Elve’s ship. Horkos is nearby in the east room. Go there and fire away to finally send Horkos packing. He goes in hiding while the Elve is destroyed.

Your group rests and you meet Louisa Ferre . A well informed girl. Meanwhile the pig attacks but Arthur gets the Plasma Shield up in time. New Main Mission: Carina’s Rosetta . Enter Carina and you will get a signal. Head up the stairs and Horkos will flee once more; but you acquire the Swine’s Hoof . Return this to Irving for him to examine. Irving turns the Swine’s Hoof into a new function for your Demonica, the Phase Shifter . After you obtain Phase Shifter A , rest up and head out.

Return to that 2F scan spot to shift phases. Take the northwest exit to go through a few doors and then take the Calm Core x3 forma and go up the stairs. Detox Core x3 will be waiting just as you get up to Carina 3F . Further east and through a door for another Detox Core x3 .

Now south and west and you will find three doors leading to dark rooms.

Enter the middle door and go south until you can go west, then go west all the way. Look south for an entrance to a St Incense x1 . Return to the dark area and go south when you can, then east when you can for another door to open. East and north for another entrance to the dark area, but instead go east and north all the way for a DF Carite II x2 forma. Back to the southwest door, and you see that forma just south of here? Make your way here in the dark area and enter to grab the Divine Shield x1 . All the way east for a Terminal, then follow the north path until you reach a locked door. Go through it and follow until you get Chakra Drop x3 . Follow the path for another Phase Shifting experience.

Head north, west and south. Follow this path until you get Bead x2 . Up a tad and west for more Type A Phase Shifting. In this new area of 3F you can wrap around counter clockwise for a Miracle Core x3 , and then turn around. You can go north and west through some doors out of the phase shift, but first head northeast and look for some stairs to 4F, then wrap around counter clockwise and grab the AC Carite x1 forma . Nothing else here so go back down to 3F and then take the northern path going east in this area for Detox Core x5 . Now go south into the ‘dark’ area (not the phase area). Work your way south, west, and counter-clockwise so that the forma in this area is west of you. Return to the dark area entrance by the stairs going up. Head south and east until you see a door going south; go through. Now head straight west, north and west through another door. You are in a new ‘phase’ area instead of a dark area.

Follow this phase area south and take the southwest route. Likely will come across a Jirae Seal x1 forma . If you take the north route here it leads to the beginning of the phase shift in this area (and it’s a one-way door so it’s a lot of backtracking if you take it). South of here for a terminal in the phase shift. route. Return east and stay the path as it leads to a Summon Stone x1 . East more for the stairs going up.

As soon as you get up here, a marker on the map for a large enemy. We can assume this is Horkos. Head west for a Miracle Core x1 forma. Take the nearby terminal as you get close to the Horkos room, and then rest up. You want allies that can cast Zio or Agi spells. Doppelganger is nice to have around because any attack at him by Horkos will just be reflected. Horkos has a strong attack so having something like Arm Shot to reduce his attack power is a must. Don’t do it any more than three times though or else he will cancel it. Horkos will also go on a Grocery Run to pick up a Katakirauwa , which he will then eat shortly thereafter. The more HP from the Katakirauwa that you take off, the less that Horkos will be healed. Horkos also has a ‘Taking a Bite’ ability that can do about 70-80 damage plus absorb half of that. But Air Dive is the scariest move he has, taking off 100+ damage to all members. Helps to have that Doppelganger to reflect it for 100 or so damage to Horkos. This is a long battle as he has 1800 HP but stay healed and go through your demons if you have to; focus on Fire and Elec attacks to get group beat downs. Tyrant Horkos will then be available through fusion.

You obtain Stomach Acid and Rosetta Car . You emerge back at the Red Sprite, rewarded for your victory as Main Mission Carina’s Rosetta is complete.

1 thought on “Strange Journey Walkthrough: Carina Sector”

oh god i hated david so much

STAREDOWN STAREDOWN STAREDOWN ALL OF YOUR DEMONS ARE GONE HAHAHAHA

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Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Recently, a friend of mine asked me what the attraction was with RPGs, because as a devotee of Call of Duty and FIFA, all he could see was grinding drudgery. After half-heartedly conveying the usual arguments about tactical battles and general escapism and quickly deciding this was just another case of "each to their own", I got sidetracked, discussing the importance of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest in Japan. What I didn't expect was his follow-up question: "what's the third most popular RPG series?"

Instinctively I said Pokemon, which in terms of sales figures could even be first, but straight afterwards my thoughts turned to Megami Tensei, a.k.a. MegaTen. Highly successful in Japan but not as popular in the West, this series slightly predates Final Fantasy and includes a staggering number of spin-offs, including Shin Megami Tensei, Devil Summoner, Digital Devil Saga, and Persona. A quick look at my inappropriately named "bookshelves" turns up seven English-language MegaTen games on the PlayStation 2 alone, which incidentally is the same number of incorrectly spelt Armored Core games.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is the second MegaTen game on the DS after last year's Devil Survivor, but rather than being a tactical RPG set on an isometric 3D plane or an action-orientated RPG, Strange Journey harks back to the series' roots of first-person dungeon crawling. The story is also a substantial departure from the anime high-school shenanigans of Persona 3; rather than building relationships and attending class in between Dark Hour combat, you'll find a more mature and grittier experience in Strange Journey.

Essentially, we're in the realms of demonic science fiction, as the game begins with a team of soldiers, engineers and scientists being sent to Antarctica to investigate a strange anomaly called the "Schwarzwelt" which is gradually enveloping the surrounding area. After venturing into this purple-hued dome in hovering APCs everything quickly goes tits-up, as the four vehicles are forced to crash-land by some unknown force. The death toll then quickly racks up as the teams are attacked by demons.

The focus shifts to a nameless soldier on the Red Sprite command ship, who after mysteriously acquiring a Demon Summoning Program which allows him to see the otherwise invisible demons, quickly sets about cleaning house. What follows is an evocative traipse through eight dimensions as the military team search for a way to halt the impeding Earth invasion and ultimately return home.

The plot is fairly text-heavy, with static cut-scenes. The localisation from the original Japanese text has been handled well; the narrative isn't particularly original but is nonetheless absorbing.

But everything in Strange Journey plays second fiddle to the combat system. On the face of it, this is an easy-to-understand, turn-based set-up where the player fights against different types of demons by selecting various attacks and buffs from an immediately familiar menu system. But Atlus mixes up this classic formula with the fusion and summoning systems.

In battle, the player takes control of the human protagonist who, in addition to summoning a party of three demons, can go toe-to-toe with the demonic ranks thanks to his Demonica combat suit. However, getting a demon onto your team isn't a simple case of hurling an endless barrage of brightly coloured balls. Instead, you have to strike a bargain through diplomacy. So by selecting the Talk option the player will stop fighting and start conversing with the demon through two multiple choice questions, and if the demon likes your answers, things will progress to negotiations.

The key to the system lies in the fact that each demon has two inherent alignments: light, neutral or dark, and law, neutral or chaos. So if you're chatting up a demon with a light/law alignment it may be best to describe the Demonica suit as a research tool, whereas a dark/neutral may prefer a more combat-orientated answer. Your own alignment, which starts off as neutral but adjusts to reflect your in-game actions, also has an impact on which type of demons will talk to you, and although the system can sometimes feel hit-and-miss, it nonetheless injects personality into each confrontation.

Despite being less numerous than Nintendo's barrage of Pocket Monsters - whose tally now runs to 495 cutesy creations - MegaTen's back catalogue of otherworldly inhabitants is arguably more diverse and more evocative. With around 318 entries in the demonic Pokedex, Strange Journey has an impressive headcount including classics like the phallic Mara and Misaguji in addition to new creations like Grendel and Manticore. Every demon is also categorised into one of 44 different species. The sources of inspiration for these demons are also incredibly varied, and include everything from Shinto, Christian, Buddhist and Hindu deities, to entities from Greek, Egyptian, Norse, Balinese, Aztec, Babylonian, Canaanite and even Shakespearean mythology.

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• Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
• Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
• Persona 3 FES
• Persona 3 Portable
• Persona 4 Golden
• Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
• Persona 5 Royal
• Persona 5 Strikers
• Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
• Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner
• Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2
• Devil Survivor
• Devil Survivor Overclocked
• Devil Survivor 2
• Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

New Game Plus

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New Game Plus in Shin Megami Tensei IV .

New Game Plus (abbreviated to "New Game+" or "NG+") or New Cycle ( 周回プレイ , Shūkai purei ) ? is a recurring mechanic in the Megami Tensei franchise, which enables the player to start a new playthrough of a game upon finishing it, while carrying over bonuses from their past playthrough(s). Each new game in this chain may be referred to as a "cycle," and the number of plays related to the save file may even be counted.

Typically, they involve a removal of fusion level limits and, in more recent installments, the ability to carry over Compendium data to make it easier to acquire demons/Personas. In most cases, the player can still use the New Game+/New Cycle mechanic if a "bad" ending was attained, though some features may require the player to obtain the game's true ending.

• 1 Appearances
• 2.1 Megami Tensei
• 2.2 Shin Megami Tensei
• 2.3 Shin Megami Tensei II
• 2.4 Shin Megami Tensei: if...
• 2.5 Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
• 2.6 Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey / Redux
• 2.7 Shin Megami Tensei IV
• 2.8 Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse
• 2.9 Shin Megami Tensei V
• 2.10 Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
• 2.11 Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army
• 2.12 Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
• 2.13 Soul Hackers 2
• 2.14 Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
• 2.15 Persona 3 / FES / Portable
• 2.16 Persona 3 Reload
• 2.17 Persona 4 / Golden
• 2.18 Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
• 2.19 Persona 5 / Royal
• 2.20 Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
• 2.21 Persona 5 Strikers
• 2.22 Devil Children series
• 2.23 Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner
• 2.24 Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2
• 2.25.1 Devil Survivor Overclocked
• 2.26 Devil Survivor 2 / Record Breaker
• 2.27 Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE / Encore

Appearances [ ]

• Megami Tensei
• Shin Megami Tensei (GBA/iOS version only)
• Shin Megami Tensei II
• Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey / Redux
• Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse
• Shin Megami Tensei V
• Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army
• Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
• Soul Hackers 2
• Persona 3 / FES / Portable / Reload
• Persona 4 / Golden
• Persona 5 / Royal
• Devil Survivor / Overclocked
• Devil Survivor 2 / Record Breaker
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE / Encore

Specific Games [ ]

Megami tensei [ ].

Five minutes after the word "END" appears on the screen after the ending, the player can begin a new cycle with the Spring of Healing and Cathedral of Shadows missing from Micom Town.

Shin Megami Tensei [ ]

Shin Megami Tensei does not have a New Game Plus function, however on the GBA/iOS versions, some visionary items can only be acquired after having finished the game at least once. In addition to requiring beating the game, certain visionary items also require obtaining the ending of a specific alignment .

If the Chaos ending has been obtained on the GBA/iOS versions, the Demon Bank will be available whenever the protagonist visits the Cathedral of Shadows.

Shin Megami Tensei II [ ]

The Diamond Realm is unlocked after starting a new cycle. However, the protagonist must first save at a certain save point and have the cleared save data intact.

In the GBA/iOS versions, the Demonic Compendium is also unlocked whenever the protagonist visits the Cathedral of Shadows, which allows the player to purchase any demons analyzed and with levels below the protagonist.

Shin Megami Tensei: if... [ ]

Starting a new cycle unlocks Akira Miyamoto as a playable character.

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne [ ]

Beating the game once will unlock two items at the beginning of a new cycle. Hooded Jacket (increases St + 2 and Vi + 1 stats) and Leather Jacket (increases Ma + 2 and Ag + 1 stats), but only one can be picked before the start of a new game plus.

The following are carried over:

• All demons registered in the Compendium
• Play time log
• Burial Chamber Battle Results in the Labyrinth of Amala
• The Extra Turn Press, if completed the Burial Chamber Battle Challenge
• Unlocked Fusion Restriction Levels
• Hard mode difficulty
• Hooded Jacket and Leather Jacket
• Unlocks the feature to switch between 3rd person & 1st person by pressing the Select Button

The following are not carried over:

• Demi-fiend 's level and stats
• Your demons
• Party member slots
• Consumable and Key Items
• Magatamas, spells, skills and the Demi-fiend's title
• Summoning Dante / Raidou Kuzunoha the XIV (Maniax/Nocturne Chronicles Edition) from the Compendium , despite being registered.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey / Redux [ ]

In the original Strange Journey , the following are carried over:

• All consumable items
• All equipment
• All Base and Assist Forma
• The number of slots in one's demon stock
• Unlocked demon fusions
• The Records section

The protagonist's level, demons, demon Sources, Sub Apps, and automap progression do not carry over.

In Strange Journey Redux , the following are carried over:

• The Compendium, including the analysis level of all demons and knowledge of their elemental affinities
• All unlocked special fusions
• Developed items at the Lab
• The number of slots in your demon stock

If you select a difficulty other than Impossible, you are also given the option to carry over any or all of the following:

• Player level and stats
• All base and Assist Forma
• All expendable items
• All equipment (Swords, Guns, Armor, and Accessories)
• All Sub Apps
• All automap progression

In both versions, there are also several extra features which become available after the first playthrough:

• A few new EX Missions become available.
• New Sub Apps can be manufactured.
• New accessories can be manufactured, including the God Ring, Gaia Ring, and the Solomon Ring.
• A device in Sector Antlia and Womb of Grief activates, letting the player battle all of the game's major bosses that you've faced, as many times as desired. In addition to all the usual items and experience that comes with the bosses, defeating them quickly can also yield various Incense as rewards.
• An area in Sector Grus is unlocked, which allows the player to fight Geist Alilat , and eventually the game's Ultimate Boss , Vile Demiurge .
• Your save file will show you which endings you have previously achieved.
• In Redux , Impossible difficulty is now available, and the fusion level restriction is lifted for all non-Impossible difficulty levels. Your save file will also display a counter showing you what "cycle" you're on (with the first NG+ playthrough being Cycle 2).
• In Redux , the player gains the ability to fuse Demeter if they obtained one of the new endings. If the player completes the Womb of Grief and declines the new endings, Amon and Shaytan will be unlocked instead.

Shin Megami Tensei IV [ ]

There are two different types of New Game Plus - "New Life" , and "Reincarnation" . With "New Life," Flynn is reset to his base stats at level 1, with no items, equipment, or macca carried over, only the minimum which will always carry over is listed. "Reincarnation" includes everything listed under "New Life" plus stats, equipment, macca, and app points. All naming events occur normally during each cycle, allowing the player to change any previously entered names if desired, with the previous entry being the default.

New Life - Reset to level 1

• Compendium Info, including all unlocked demons (the first time Cathedral of Shadows is run, Mido will list all unlocked demons)
• Play Log Information
• DDS (Streetpass) Card with Demon attached
• The Applications Skill Expansion 1-4 and Demon Skill +1-4 are permanent after purchase and will always be active
• "Master" (Hard) difficulty unlocked
• Fusion Booster X App unlocked (requires Fusion Booster 1-7; removes fusion level limit entirely)
• Challenge Quests specific to NG+ are available, provided their other prerequisites are met
• File gains a "Cycle" tab underneath "Place" and "Play Time," which increases by 1 with each NG+
• File gains Four diamond-shaped slots next to "Level," which are filled to indicate which endings the player has achieved. 1: Orange - Nihilist/Bad/White, 2: Blue - Law, 3: White - Neutral, 4: Red - Chaos.

Reincarnation - Continue with everything

• Flynn's current Level, Stats, and Skills
• All Consumable Items (no Relics, Key Items, or Delivery Quest Items)
• All Weapons, Armor, and Accessories
• All Macca carried
• All Applications are deactivated and spent App Points are refunded (excluding Skill Expansion and Demon Skill+ apps, which stay active), any unused points roll over into the new pool. Apps must be purchased again as they become available through the story.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse [ ]

Like Shin Megami Tensei IV , Apocalypse offers both New Life and Reincarnation options for a new cycle. Additionally, if the player has purchased the "Depths of Twisted Tokyo" DLC and defeated En no Ozuno, then in a new cycle all the demons of Twisted Tokyo will have their levels increased, and all the Fiend bosses will have improved drops on defeat.

Shin Megami Tensei V [ ]

Shin Megami Tensei V once again features the two-type New Game Plus system introduced in Shin Megami Tensei IV . Newborn mode will transfer Demon Compendium and demon analysis data, while Reborn will carry the aforementioned as well as the protagonist 's level, skills, demons, Macca, and items (except for key items).

In Reborn mode, the scripted Pixie encounter where she joins the party is skipped.

Completing the game once, regardless of ending, unlocks both forms of Nuwa and Abdiel for fusion. Additional miracles are also unlocked, 2 of which are default New Game+ unlocks, while 2 more are unlocked from playing either a chaotic or lawful run.

Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers [ ]

New Game Plus is unlocked once the player completes the Corridor of Time and enters the southernmost room where a voice asks if they want to reset time and continue their journey again. During New Game Plus, several things change:

• Damage taken from enemies is increased by 50%.
• Casino coins and the bank balance in Paradigm X is retained.
• The "Steven" and "Friday" apps are pre-installed in the GUMP , which enables COMP Fusion to ignore the level restriction and grants maximum loyalty, respectively.
• Likewise, the Goumaden no longer has level restrictions on fusing.
• New mini-games can be played at the shops in Shibahama Core .
• An alternate ending is available in which Spooky survives his possession by Satanael .
• In the 3DS version, compendium data is carried over. Demons unlocked from Nemechi are also retained, however Nemechi itself is reverted to the first stage.

Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army [ ]

In New Game Plus, Hard Mode becomes available and the Aurora clip becomes available for purchase in Konnou-Ya. Additionally, the following items carry over:

• Customer rank in Konnou-Ya
• Demon loyalty amount
• Demon Compendium

Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon [ ]

New Game Plus is unlocked upon making a cleared save and only on Normal Mode. Hard Mode has nothing carry over. Raidou's level, weapons, money, and items do not carry over on Normal Mode. Things carried over:

• Raidou's current rank and max loyalty from demons.
• The percentage of Case Files done. The ones done don't need to be completed again unless required for other Case Files that were not completed on the previous playthrough. Required to get the last Case File.
• Number of Tubes
• Fusions recorded and demons in the compendium.
• Cleared Alignment and time played.
• Three new Case Files available if Raidou goes Chaos on the previous playthrough. Required to obtain the last Case File.
• Deals at Konnou-Ya .
• Increased chance of getting alignment points when using the bathhouse trick to change alignments.

Soul Hackers 2 [ ]

In New Game Plus, the following are automatically carried over:

• Shop inventories
• Accessories
• Data on defeated enemies
• Data on eaten meals

The player can then choose which of the following to carry over:

• Character levels
• COMP upgrades
• Money and Mistiquartz
• Demon Compendium and unlocked fusions

The following does not carry over:

• Soul Levels
• Summoner Skills
• Demon inventory

New Game Plus also has the following additional features:

• New requests
• New personal events
• Increased Soul Level points gain
• Previously made dialogue choices are marked

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment [ ]

After completing the game, the player has the option to save a "cleared game" data, which gains a small icon of the temporary party member chosen in that playthrough ( Eriko Kirishima or Kei Nanjo ) and can be loaded to start a new playthrough with some things being carried over, they are:

• All Analyze data (Demons, Personas and Fusion Spells, but not bosses).
• All Tarot cards (including Fool and Free).
• All Material cards (PSP version only).
• Money and casino coins (PSP version only).
• All cards registered in Time Castle.
• Possession of the Carma Ring.
• Bonuses granted by facilities in town (restaurants, aromatherapy and treatments).
• Any major arcana Personas only available via mutation ( Lugh , Michael , Mot , Pallas Athena and Shokuin ) obtained in previous playthroughs will be added to the Velvet Room list and can be summoned normally. Maia Prime is the only exception. Also, if Maia Prime is in the party or reserves when "cleared game" data is created, Maia will never mutate into Maia Prime due to a bug.
• If the loaded data comes from a Nanjo playthrough, the Morning Star Material Card will be added to the selection of prizes in Mu Continent. Likewise, an Eriko playthrough will grant an Accuser's Diary Material Card.
• If the game has been completed on both Eriko's and Nanjo's routes, the EX Dungeon is unlocked in the main menu.

The following do not:

• Levels and stats for any party member.
• Items and equipment (except for the Carma Ring and Tarot cards, and Material cards in the PSP version).
• Money and casino coins (PSX version only).

Persona 3 / FES / Portable [ ]

The following carry over when the player begins a new cycle:

• Protagonist 's level
• Social stats
• Persona Compendium
• In P3 and FES , only the protagonist's equipment carries over. In Portable , both the protagonist's and party members' equipment carry over.
• Gifts received from maxed Social Links

When starting a new cycle in Maniac difficulty in Portable , no clear data is carried over except for play time.

• Shadow analysis data
• Other party members' levels
• Persona inventory
• Items and skill cards
• Social Links
• Elizabeth's Requests

The following features are only available during a new cycle:

• The Monad Depths and Vision Quest are available from April 22nd, the earliest moment in the game the player can explore Tartarus freely (except when playing in Maniac difficulty in Portable ).
• The opportunity to fight Elizabeth / Theodore . The request to fight them becomes available from April 30th, the earliest moment in the game the player can accept Requests (except when playing in Maniac difficulty in Portable ).
• Portable only: In the last cutscene, the male or female protagonist can choose to spend their last moments with a member of SEES they are in a romantic relationship with instead of Aigis .

The Answer in Persona 3 FES does not have a New Game Plus.

Persona 3 Reload [ ]

• Social Stats
• On Merciless difficulty , only certain items will make the transition. These items will be marked with an asterisk (*).
• Stat increases from Incenses , Shuffle Time bonuses, arcade game cabinets, etc.
• Obtained costumes aside from the SEES Uniform
• Equipped Persona during the time of the final fight
• Ownership of the SEES Uniform

Persona 4 / Golden [ ]

• The Persona Compendium , as well as any items that granted a summoning discount
• The number of slots to store Personas

In Persona 4 Golden , the following additional things carry over:

• Weapons, armor, and accessories unlocked at Daidara's Metalworks
• Skill Cards given to Marie / Margaret
• Costumes purchased
• The player's rescue message, count, and log

The following do not carry over:

• All characters' levels, stats, and abilities
• All items other than the ones earned from maximizing Social Links
• The Personas in the protagonist's possession at the end
• Social Link status
• The ability to fuse Personas in patterns bigger than Triangle (this is unlocked on July 10 as always)

Features that become available only in a New Game Plus playthrough:

• Izanagi-no-Okami can be fused in the Velvet Room once the protagonist reaches Level 91 if the True Ending was obtained in the previous playthrough.
• Assuming the right conditions have been met, the player will be able to fight Margaret on the last day.
• In the original Persona 4 , the Reaper will now appear in dungeons.
• The amount of damage the player deals and receives (Great, Normal, Small)
• The amount of experience and money earned from battle (Less, Normal, More)
• Where the player can retry if the protagonist is defeated: in the middle of the battle, the beginning of the current floor, or all the way from their previous last save

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth [ ]

The player has an option to carry over nothing into each New Cycle or to carry the following:

• Persona Levels
• All Money, Items and Equipment, including Stored items
• Unlocked equipment in the Workshop
• Character and Persona levels
• Enepedia data - Clock Tower enemy data will remain hidden until the player gains access to the Clock Tower in that playthrough.
• Mapping Data - The player chooses separately from the above if the Mapping Data is to be carried over

Starting a New Game Plus or loading Clear Data after either protagonists' route has been completed unlocks bonus requests and allows the player to purchase the initial equipment of all party members from both character routes. Loading Clear Data after both protagonists' routes have been completed grants the request to fight the game's Ultimate Boss .

Persona 5 / Royal [ ]

When game-clear data is loaded, the player will be given the option on whether or not to carry over their data from past playthrough(s) to a new game.

If chosen to do so, the following elements are carried over:

• The protagonist's Social Stats
• The Compendium , as well as any items that unlock fusion of specific Personas
• All known affinities of all Shadows (except bosses)
• All equipment and accessories
• Skill Cards (including Blank Cards )
• Fishing rod upgrades purchased
• Presents received from Confidants at Christmas, Valentine's Day, and on 3/19

In Persona 5 Royal , the following additional elements carry over:

• The protagonist's HP and SP increases from training , meditation , and ranking up Yoshizawa and Maruki 's Confidants.
• Jazz club cocktail stat increases. Skills that were taught to party members (sans Futaba ) can be remembered via the confessional .
• Skill Cards duplicated by Yusuke .
• All known affinities of bosses
• Gun customizations
• The Perma-Pick
• Challenge Battle scores/rewards
• Mementos stamps collected

The following elements are not carried over:

• Consumable items, infiltration items , crafting materials, and gifts that can be given to Confidants
• Levels of all playable characters , including the protagonist
• Ultimate and third-tier Personas of party members
• Confidant ranks
• Books , DVDs , and video games
• Decorations
• Points earned at the fishing pond
• The name of the protagonist and the Phantom Thieves
• Tutorial and Story cutscene history
• Baton Pass and Technical ranks ( Royal )
• This is the only way to change the difficulty from Safety if it was set that way before.

New Game+ unlocks the following new features, though the final boss of the original game must be defeated and the true ending must be achieved for these to apply:

• Optional fight against Caroline and Justine before 12/24;
• The ability to fuse the protagonist's ultimate Persona , Satanael , as well as use Paradise Lost (and Paradise Lost R in Royal )
• A special mark on the completed save file
• Royal : Optional fight against Lavenza (only available in the third semester)
• Royal : Original Prince Suit for Goro Akechi in the final palace (only available in the third semester)
• Royal : Dark Suit (Black Mask costume) for Goro Akechi in Niijima's Palace

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth [ ]

• Certain Items
• EQUIPPED Gear
• Map Data for each floor
• Stats and level for the party
• Ultimate Personas
• Unison Skill involving all four protagonists

The following is not carried over:

• The current members in the party (only the P5 cast will be present initially; all other party members must be re-recruited)
• Hikari's Cheer is still unusable prior to midway into the boss fight of the fourth labyrinth

Persona 5 Strikers [ ]

New Game+ must first be unlocked by clearing Lavenza's final Request to defeat The Reaper at the Okinawa Jail . After obtaining the Spiral Bookmark and saving the game, the Clear Data will be marked with a "MASTERED" icon; loading this file will prompt the option to start a New Game+.

The following carries over on a New Game+:

• All character stats and levels
• All non-critical items, including equipment and consumables
• Persona Points
• BOND unlocks and upgrades
• Equipment and items unlocked for purchase in Sophia's Shop

New Game+ does not carry over:

• Story-critical Key Items
• Request progress/completion

While on a New Game+, the following is unlocked:

• The option to play on Merciless difficulty . Unlike normal difficulty options, the option to switch to Merciless difficulty only appears upon confirming a New Game+, and once chosen difficulty settings cannot be changed for the remainder of the game.
• Wolf is added to the roster at the start of the game
• Sophie starts the game with her true Persona, Pandora
• Lucifer becomes available for fusion
• Sophia's Shop sells Incense items for ¥200,000 each

When prompted to give the protagonist a name in New Game+, the game will display his name from the previous playthrough as a default name.

Devil Children series [ ]

With the exception of Devil Children Fire/Ice Book , all games in the series leave a series of options that will have the protagonist restart the story from the beginning before they can defeat the final boss. This is a one time only choice that returns them, and allows for the capture of rare demons and ones missed earlier. This is a one time only situation, and afterwards they must complete the story.

Protagonist Level, money, items, and demons are retained. However, their demon partner is returned to their original form and level one, meaning they have to strengthen it again so it can fight the enemy.

Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner [ ]

The bonuses are:

• All mastered Mantra will still be learned, giving access to their skills
• All not-mastered but purchased Mantra will still be unlocked
• All characters will learn the Human Form passive skill
• The Demi-fiend fight becomes available
• Stats and levels
• Money, equipment and items

Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2 [ ]

• Any bonuses obtained from importing cleared data from the first game (stats bonuses, rings, etc.) will be valid
• All mastered Mantra will still be learned, giving access to their skills. Serph will inherit Seraph's Mantra Grid. If the player had Heat as a party member on the previous playthrough, Roland will inherit his grid. This does not include bonuses from stat increasing bonus mantras.
• Hard Mode is unlocked
• All Karma Rings, not including customizations done to them by using gems, will be kept
• The Berserker Ring will be received at the Underwater Cable instead of the Hee-Ho Ring
• Levels and stats for any character
• Money, equipment and items (except for Karma Rings)
• Mastered/purchased Mantras and Karma Rings (Hard Mode only)

Devil Survivor [ ]

The following carry over:

• All demons that were in stock at the end of the game, with all of their stats, levels, and skills
• Rank and Membership Level at the Devil Auction , as well as access to any demons unlocked through battle
• Access to any special fusions you unlocked through decisions/story events throughout your prior playthrough(s)
• All cracked skills

The following are gained:

• Fusion level restriction is lifted
• The protagonist ’s base movement is extended to 5 (this does not happen if the game was finished using Yuzu's route )
• Lucifer is available to fight on the 7th day
• Unlocked party members
• The stats of Atsuro and Yuzu
• Relationship/side-quest progress with characters

Devil Survivor Overclocked [ ]

In Overclocked , after viewing the ending and staff credits, the player is prompted to make a clear save. If the player ended on the Yuzu, Amane , or Naoya / Kaido routes, they can select whether to continue to the 8th day chapter or just New Game Plus. The Naoya/Kaido routes allow the player to start the 8th day again after completing it in order to let the player get both alternate routes.

Optional boss fights with Ghost Q , Sage of Time , Yomotsu Ikusa and Nebiros become available.

Upon loading a cleared save, they will be presented with the Survivor Awards which awards them points based on what they accomplished and spend them on bonuses for the next playthrough. These Rewards are:

• Carry over one, four, eight, or all demons from the previous playthrough's team
• Carry over all cracked skills
• Carry over Macca earned
• Carry over all unlocked Auction House tiers
• Remove the EXP penalty from defeating lower-level enemies
• Gain a 10%, 30%, or 50% discount from summoning demons
• Set the fusion level at 99, rather than the player's level
• Unlock the battle with Lucifer

Devil Survivor 2 / Record Breaker [ ]

Loading game-clear data will begin the Survivor Awards Ceremony, where the player can purchase various Rewards based on their accomplishments over their past playthrough(s) . These Rewards include the ability to:

• Unlock fights with Nebiros , Belial , and Alice
• Unlock fusion of Mitamas
• Unlock the battle with Tico

Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE / Encore [ ]

Loading the game-clear data will start the creation of a New Game+ file.

Completing the game and starting New Game+ will unlock the various awards:

• Lunatic difficulty is unlocked. It cannot be lowered from this difficulty at any point if chosen, nor can it be raised to this difficulty if not. It can only be set during the creation of the NG+ file.
• Emblem Form is automatically obtained, while The President requires achieving the Best Ending, by talking to everyone after completing all three of their respective side stories , then head to the Bloom Palace last to end the Epilogue and finish the game. Getting both unlocks Itsuki's "Best Dressed" Play Record.
• The ability to craft the party's Ultimate Carnages .
• Two additional Requests are able to be completed.
• The Legendary circuit for Illusory Urahara 's Arena is unlocked. This is how one obtains the necessary material for the Ultimate Carnages.
• Certain Play Records are now available to be obtained for 100% completion.
• The main menu gains a golden filter around the edges, making the scene look like it's taking place during the afternoon.
• The ability to swap Itsuki out of the active party.
• The ability to craft Itsuki's Open Audition Radiant Skill , unlocking Itsuki's "Radiant Star" Play Record.

When starting a New Game+ file regardless of difficulty settings, certain traits always carry over to that save file, and are noted as Automatic Data when choosing standard difficulties. The contents of the Automatic data is:

• Allotted playtime from the previous run.
• Unlocked Play Records and Awards
• Items available for sale at Hee Ho Mart , Carabia Jewelry , and more.
• Any equipped costumes during the fight with Medeus are set back towards the default Carnage Form costumes.
• Analysis Information of all encountered Mirages.
• The highest title won from fighting in the Urahara Arena.

On standard difficulties, there is additional traits that can either be brought over to the New Game+ file or be reset per the wishes of the player, and are noted as Optional Data . Choosing Lunatic difficulty forbids the ability to use Optional Data. The contents of the Optional Data are:

• This option also retains the effects of any Incenses used on party members.
• All Carnages' current level of Mastery progression are reset.
• Any enhancements that a Carnage have gone through via the Bloom Palace are retained.
• The Carnage that a party member was equipped with during the battle with Medeus is left equipped if toggled on.
• Any Skill Inheritance enhancement for these Skills are retained.
• Special Performances obtained from forging a playable character's first Carnage and promoting them to an advanced class .
• Idolasphere map completion.
• The accessories that the party were wearing during the battle with Medeus are reset to their respective default accessory.

Outside of Optional Data, the following are those that are always not carried over into New Game+:

• Completion of Side Stories and Requests.
• Special Performances earned from completing Side Stories, or from story-based progress in Itsuki's case.
• Ad-lib Performances .
• All collected Performa , including Master Seals.
• The effects of Lck Incenses.
• The advanced class the party's Mirages were in at the end of the game.
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Video Game / Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

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The outset of the 21st century... Earth is a planet teeming with life. Mankind, 7 billion strong, continued to prosper.

However... This prosperity had a price. To a species unable to halt the environment's destruction... the Land of Ruin would inevitably appear.

Even so... mankind, desperate for salvation, clung to hope. A brave few begin their mission... To the enigmatic Land of Ruin. Little realizing this harsh Journey will decide man's fate... — Strange Journey opening

The DS incarnation of the Shin Megami Tensei series. It was released for the DS in Japan on October 8, 2009 and March 22, 2010 for the United States.

In the year 20XX , a strange zone of pure blackness appears at the South Pole and gradually begins to expand outwards. Dubbed the "Schwarzwelt", this phenomenon swallows up everything it touches, and all attempts to analyse or explain it end in failure, as do attempts to halt its advance.

With no other option, the United Nations assembles four elite teams comprised of the most talented soldiers and scientists from around the world. Armed with the most advanced technology available, including the DEMONICA Powered Armor and four massive exploration vehicles, their mission is to physically enter and explore the interior of the Schwarzwelt, and find a way to stop it before the entire world is consumed.

You take the role of a decorated soldier on-board the Red Sprite, one of the four exploration vehicles sent into the Schwarzwelt. After a crash landing into the Schwarzwelt, the Red Sprite is separated from the other vehicles, and you soon discover that the interior of the Schwarzwelt is crawling with invisible demons eager to tear you and your comrades to pieces. Fortunately, with the help of a mysterious software program downloaded into your armor, you can perceive, converse with and recruit these demons to your side.

Cut off from the real world, all you can hope to do is push further into the Schwarzwelt looking for answers and a way out.

An Updated Re-release for the Nintendo 3DS called Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux ( Strange Journey Deep in Japan ) was released in Japan in 2017. This update improves the visuals and adds voice acting, a number of new characters and recruitable demons, and new ending routes. It released in North America on May 16 2018.

There's a manga side story known as Deathtament: Shin Megami Tensei Deep Strange Journey -Another Report- by Yasuo Kanou, which centers on another team that lost contact with Red Sprite and is forced to investigate Schwarzwelt without any backup. It ran for three volumes.

Compare Etrian Odyssey by the same company , which Strange Journey shares a number of elements with.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey provides examples of:

• Adaptive Armor : The DEMONICA suit, designed to continuously improve your performance. You don't gain levels. The suit does.
• The role of the wall is to "disassemble" everything at the molecular level so it can be properly reconstituted as whatever the Schwarzwelt thinks it would best fit as. The outside world is the "crime," the plasma wall the verdict, the Schwarzwelt the sentence.
• Mithras is less openly hostile to the humans than the other tyrants, and offers them citizenship in his domain first.
• Demons with the "gentleman" personality are unfailingly polite, even if negotiations fall through. Instead of angrily telling you to piss off like other demons will, "gentlemen" demons will simply politely request to return to the battle.
• Alas, Poor Villain : Jimenez in the Neutral path. Even before the fight, he expresses regret that things have lead to a Duel to the Death due to your bond with each other, and after the battle, as he dies he acknowledges that you were always better than him . In Redux, Demeter's Reluctant Sacrifice in all new routes, despite having manipulated the protagonist to obtain the cosmic fruit for the Three Wise Men, she genuinely believed in the World of Law (shame the Three Wise Men only care about themselves) as the best alternative for nature. Also Shekinah- the Three Wise Men's Final Speech in which she despairingly mourns that humanity will destroy the Earth she loves .
• Played with even more with all demons getting several types of speech patterns. Yes, you may have to negotiate with a valley girl demon, a disgruntled southern gentleman demon, a street punk demon, or demons that can only speak in pidgin English.
• Even lampshaded by a lot of demons who will ask you why you can talk with them. They accept different answers every time though.
• Alignment-Based Endings : An ending exists for each of the alignments: Law, Neutral and Chaos. Further, mutually exclusive end-game Sidequests , unique equipment, and so forth also exist past the Point of No Return .
• Ambiguously Evil : The Joint Project. As secretive government types they're rather shady, but they nevertheless seem supportive of the mission and mean you no harm. Over the course of the game, however, you learn that they sent the team with some rather... interesting equipment, including a gun that brainwashes people and an atomic bomb , and around the halfway point they attempt to destroy the Schwartzwelt with the team still inside, which would strand them in the demon world forever . Whether this was a case of You Have Outlived Your Usefulness or a simple miscalculation isn't particularly well explained.
• Ambiguously Human : The three unique Demonica-Alignment demons. It's mentioned that the Spiegel Effect, which allows the Schwarzwelt to partially mimic human environments, is responsible for creating them by applying the same principles to the Investigation Team's soldiers.
• America Saves the Day : Subverted. Red Sprite and the other ships do have members from the USA, including the main character (who is Japanese in the Japanese version), but many other crew members come from other parts of the world.
• Instead of just two save slots, you now have twenty .
• In addition to conventional saves that can only be performed aboard the Red Sprite and at Terminals, you now have a single "Field Save" slot that you can use when out on the field. The drawback to the Field Save is that once you load it you are at an increased danger of a nearby random encounter.
• One of the Sub-Apps that are available upon unlocking the Sub-Apps feature is March To Death, which averts We Cannot Go On Without You by allowing the game to continue after your death, as long as you have at least one demon out and alive. It's not available on Impossible difficulty, however.
• The Omen Bug temporarily stops you if you're about to step on a warp tile or pitfall, and marks the tile on your map for map completion purposes so you don't have to walk into every dead end.
• Guidance Angel lets you see a warp tile's destination by tapping its icon on the map, so you don't have to memorize which tile leads where.
• Marco Polo automatically marks adjacent hidden doors on your map without needing you to face them so you spend less time awkwardly side-stepping along walls.
• The Visualizer Main Apps now integrate the features of Scanning Zero, mapping out the tiles you've traveled without needing that New Game Plus Sub-App.
• Replacing Scanning Zero is the Columbus Sub-App, which automatically maps out all squares within the player's 3-square scan range, making mapping a lot easier.
• Sub-Apps no longer have costs. With the exception of mutually-exclusive Sub-Apps (such as the Encounter Repellant and Encounter Bait Sub-Apps, or Sub-Apps that serve the same function in different magnitudes), you can now activate as many or as few as you please.
• Like in both Devil Survivor games, both Shin Megami Tensei IV games, and Persona 4 Golden , you can now choose what skills to pass on when fusing demons, instead of skill inheritance being decided by the RNG. This only applies when using a D-Source in fusion.
• Healing at the Sickbay no longer costs Macca.
• You can pick up free DLC that gives good equipment and a shower of recovery items to minimize Early Game Hell . Once you're past the first couple sectors, though, the DLC equipment is easily overshadowed, but by that point your tactical options would have considerably expanded.
• Anti-Grinding : As per Megami Tensei tradition, overleveled demons or protagonist will stifle experience point rewards. Rather annoying in that on a New Game Plus , bringing in your endgame party at the start of the game will greatly stunt your level growth. The multiplier is personalized in Redux , meaning that only the overlevelled will get minimal experience.
• Apocalyptic Log : Transmissions from unmanned drones sent into the Schwarzwelt. And the reports found in the Demonicas of the slain crew members.
• The vampire Kudlak and his hunter, Kresnik, who first showed up in Devil Summoner , return again in this game. They're still pretty much at a stalemate.
• Barong and Rangda of Balinese mythology are also represented, with Barong sending you on a sub-quest to issue a challenge to his eternal enemy Rangda.
• Asshole Victim : The murder of Captain Jack by Jimenez and the brainwashing of Lieutenant Ryan by Zelenin are clearly intended to show how far gone the two are after their transformations. Given all Jack's Squad had done throughout the game, however, the player is unlikely to do anything but cheer .
• Tetrakarn and Makarakarn, which grant Single Use Shields that repel physical and magic attacks, respectively. Not only do they cost a lot of MP (45), but they only last for the current turn, making them inefficient at best on high-speed demons and an outright waste of MP on low-speed ones. Averted with the new mechanics of Redux : support spells are quicker to come out than offensive spells, meaning speed is much less of an issue, and an early sub-app called Trigger Happy has a random chance at putting MP costs at zero for the turn, which is basically a free -karn spell.
• Cold World, Charming Bolt, and Floral Gust are all 65-MP elemental spells that hit all enemies, with a relatively low chance of inflicting an ailment — instant death, charm, and mute respectively. They also are slightly weaker than their Ma-dyne counterparts, and the added effects are not at all worth the inflated MP cost. Their Fire counterpart, Ragnarok, avoids this trope as it eschews an added effect for the potential to do massive damage.
• Riot Gun Copy, a skill unique to the Megido Fire, delivers a single powerful hit of Almighty damage. However, it also costs a whopping 80 MP. In contrast, Moan Bullet deals 1-3 slightly weaker hits, only costs 45 MP, and outdamages Riot Gun Copy when it manages to hit twice.
• A Space Marine Is You : An RPG example, but still.
• Badass Normal : The Strike Team, with the Main Protagonist being the most notable. Only demons can wield magic, whereas you need to rely on the Demonica and your firearm to substitute for it. Doesn't stop you from steamrolling and subjugating supernatural beasts.
• The Bad Guy Wins : As in many games in this franchise, both the Law and Chaos endings can be considered this, special mention going to Chaos because you help the Schwartzwelt consume the Earth, the very thing you'd been sent in to prevent in the first place .
• Bandit Mook : Demons who can use the enemy-exclusive Macca Beam or Wastrel Beam are the number 1 cause for premature baldness in gamers. Especially since they don't make you drop a preset amount of Macca, but a percentage of your total, so if a piddly little Preta from the second sector hits your endgame-level party (or, god forbid, a New Game Plus party ) with Macca Beam, you'll probably have to reload just from losing hundreds of thousands of Macca. It gets worse with Kangitens that tout Wastrel Beam, a move which vaporizes half the money you have on-hand. Try not to sell off too much of that rare forma!
• Awake Jimenez, Empty Mem Aleph, and Vile Demiurge all change their resistances every few turns. The last of them only does this on a New or Full Moon, and if challenged at any other moon phase he repels everything.
• The primary gimmick of the remake's True Final Boss is that she has a base form that is neutral to all six basic elements, but can shift resistances and moves to resemble the major bosses in the Womb of Grief, including Amon. In her second phase, this gets updated so that she will resist everything, even Almighty and a form's weakness, except for Demon Co-Ops.
• Three of the four ultimate Optional Bosses of Redux have a weakness. However, at the end of the turn where that weakness is exploited, they change it to a random affinity, on top of re-obscuring their affinities with question marks, making it a crapshoot in trying to chain Co-Op attacks.
• Base on Wheels : The Red Sprite, the Blue Jet, the Elve, the Gigantic, and the Lightning. A couple of stories tall, heavily fortified, can emit plasma shields , amphibious, and come with VTOL jets for short-distance flight. The interior is equipped with sickbays and laboratories, and each vehicle is run by an autonomous Artificial Intelligence . Also qualify for Cool Ship with a mix of Tank Goodness and a large side of Awesome Personnel Carrier . They can also split in half, each with its own VTOL capabilities: the bow carries the main command bridge, living quarters, and sickbay; the aft contains the manufacturing lab, power core, and auxiliary terminals for Arthur .
• There are some (incredibly obvious) answers that will always force a demon to attack you. Some can be quite hilarious to see unfold. Female Demon : What is that mask for? Hero : It lets me see wrinkles. ( Beat ) The demon suddenly attacked!
• Better to Die than Be Killed : Should you choose to do nothing and show mercy during The Holy Dragonslayer EX Mission, then Mother Harlot will have her Dragon devour her as a nod to Revelations 17:16 so that she will no longer be a tool for the Angels to use .
• Big Eater : Horkos, daaaamn . He points out humanity isn't very much different from him, and that they consume and eat endlessly in their world of luxuries.
• Big Labyrinthine Building : Sector Carina is a huge shopping mall with escalators and sliding doors, and rows and rows of bizarre products, and it also serves as a meat packing plant, as conveyor lines carry endless sides of meat to unseen kitchens where they are prepared for Horkos . It's also one of the more memorable areas of the game, as many characters are simply astonished by the appearance of a shopping mall in a different dimension, but apparently it's not so foreign, as Chen remarks that the sector is simply a copy of a real mall on Earth (although how many shopping malls routinely carry heavy military ordnance is anyone's guess). In the game's story, riots and lootings are trailing though South America due to shortages, likely stemming from the severe economic imbalance of the game's Crapsack World .
• The New Neutral Ending of Redux is also this. You destroy the Schwarzwelt, but it's clear that it will continue to come back over and over again. While the protagonist is now an immortal force who can destroy the Schwarzwelt again, he'll have to do it for eternity. While he has Arthur for companionship, it's implied he's also undergoing a loss of his own humanity.
• The The New Chaos and Law Endings in Redux are actually far more sweet than bitter for once. New Law has Zelenin eliminate human propesities for violence instead of fully controlling them, with humanity thus progressing through cooperation and peaceful methods though it's implied this might backfire if another threat arises. New Chaos meanwhile has Jiminez using the Cosmic Fruit to ensure that all humans and demons are free to choose their paths on equal grounds though there's no telling how long it will be if or when a human or demon believes their best choices will come at the expense of others.
• This is almost an Enforced Trope . The Pixie that walks you through conversation mechanics states that sucking up to demons and telling them what they want to hear are the keys to success. (She uses those exact terms.)
• Oddly enough, any demon with the "old woman" personality does realize she's being brainwashed when you use Relax Spray on her. She still doesn't care.
• Not to mention the answer to the question at the beginning of the game (Will the mission succeed?). Unless you do neutral.
• Some demons pull this on YOU: they ask to join you and then will take advantage of your lowered guard. Catch them in the lie and they're impressed enough to let you go.
• At one point a certain demon is described as a "beautiful and voluptuous goddess." Said demon? Mara.
• Also the MC himself will receive Macca, items, and even demonic fighters just by telling them what they want to hear.
• Blessed with Suck : The ultimate reward for Anthony's sidequests is a password that gives you a level 63 Gemori. However, although this Gemori is 3 levels higher, she has the exact same stats and skills as her random encounter version, and her default skillset is already mediocre to boot.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality : In some SMT games, Law and Chaos are downplayed to "live freely" or "live for others." In this game, they're taken up to eleven: Law is "mindlessly worship the holy authority" and Chaos is "degenerate into bloodthirsty savages that are basically the same as demons." There's no way either of them could be construed as "good," because they take it way too far. Playing Neutral will have you feel like you're the Only Sane Man . The new endings in Redux slaps some sense into the alignment's representatives, allowing them to come up with a more beneficial approach to Law and Chaos.
• Bolivian Army Ending : At the end of Deathtament , the Strike Team of the Gigantic that stayed in the Womb of Grief to rescue Jin are waiting for the ship to return, unaware that demons hiding among the crew blindsided the rest. The Womb itself slowly saps the strength of everything trapped within it and then petrifies them... but Louisa Ferre's ending narration implies that they may find an alternate path .
• Boom, Headshot! : One particular gun has a skill called Headshot, which inflicts mild Gun damage with a chance of a One-Hit KO . The effect is simulated by applying a light chance of Curse-elemental damage.
• The Rasetsu Vest, found in an EX Mission in the latter half of Sector Bootes, has no weaknesses but also gives immunity to Curse. It relieves the worries of dying to a stray Mudo spell, and is good enough to last you till Delphinus.
• Mana Drain doesn't do damage, but saps away some MP and restores it to its caster. It becomes vital for most support or healer demons as it gives them something to do when they don't need to heal or buff, on top of allowing for self-sustenance in boss battles due to how much the strongest healing and support spells cost. Plus, fewer turns spent on having the protagonist chuck a Chakra Drop or Pot means more turns to attack. Later on it'll get replaced by Energy Drain which saps HP as well, letting the demon contribute to damage.
• Due to an Action Initiative with item use, it's common to use the protagonist as the party's main healer, especially if he currently lacks the ability to hit the enemy's weaknesses. The game hands you enough Beads and Bead Chains that there's no reason not to expend them while having your demons do the heavy lifting. Having Tetraja, Dekaja, and Dekunda on demons also becomes superfluous when you've built up a nice stockpile of their respective Stones.
• Boss Bonanza : As you go through Sector Fornax, you battle with a total of six new bosses — the reborn tyrants: Moloch, Mithra, Orcus, Asherah; Captain Jack, and Tiamat at the end.
• The penultimate floor of the final sector of the game has a very simple layout compared to the much more complex earlier floors. It's a straight path to the final floor where the Final Boss resides, and along the way you pass by several NPCs offering words of encouragement to bring the final act to a close.
• The final floor of the Bonus Dungeon in Redux consists of a straight corridor leading up to the True Final Boss . The trope gets subverted when you trigger the sidequest that leads you to the new ultimate superbosses , leading you to explore the floor in its entirety.

• You'll probably miss Matador the first time around (as he is not a horseman) and by the time you get back, you will not be that scared of him because he doesn't have many skills and his taunt skill will make him easier to defeat (if you have equipment and demons that void or even reflect phys, the job pretty much does itself for you).
• The first real fiend that most will encounter is in Delphinus which is the White Rider. And boy when he appears you will be scared stiff. Not just that, he packs quite a punch too. He follows David's pattern of inflicting fear on your demons and then going all out. If you plan on fighting head on, White Rider can be even scarier than Asura because he can eject everyone in your party so that you will have to fight him alone (unless you waste turns recovering demons). The rest of the horsemen follow suit but special mention goes to the Pale Rider and the Trumpeter.
• The Pale Rider shows up in Grus and his main strength is in his ability to attack you with heavy equipment until you die. You also better have something that nulls Curse because he loves to cast Mamudoon which is instant death with an 80% accuracy tag. Ouch. But he shouldn't need it as he can probably kill your party with bare blades anyway (unless you start buffing).
• The Trumpeter has an incredible amount of health, and will instantly kill you unless you maintain a Tetraja effect. He also spams random status effects which are almost guaranteed to hit. When he gets low on health, he chain-casts the powerful spell Megidolaon. And to top it all off, he has no weaknesses unlike the rest of the Fiends, so you're in for a long fight.
• Boss Room : Often pretty noticeable in the map. Sometimes even marked with a bright red "!" once you've discovered them. "Warning: Powerful demon detected..."
• Boss Rush : In Sector Antlia on a New Game Plus , a strange device allows you to fight the sector endbosses back-to-back (as well as Pillar Zelenin, Soil Jimenez, and Mastema . Doing so allows you to grind levels and Macca like nobody's business in the span of minutes. Redux adds another one for the Womb of Grief bosses in the Ingress, though you have to go through the Sixth Sphere to reach it, and this one ends with Amon at his full power and Shekinah .
• Boss Tease : Halfway through Sector Delphinus, you will find a statue of a demon. There isn't anything else you can do except progress through the story until the spirit returns to the statue, at which point you face Asura.
• Subverted in Sector Bootes, when you approach Mithras's lair and get this warning, but when you enter, you're simply greeted with a speech and get escorted back to the Red Sprite afterwards. The warning doesn't trigger again when you approach Mithras's room a second time to assault him, but since you now know his location, it's not necessary.
• Late into the game, in Sector Fornax, your Demonica warns you on multiple occasions that a powerful demon is nearby but cannot pinpoint their coordinates. Proceed further and sure enough, you face the One-Winged Angel form of one of the first four sector bosses.
• Redux however ends up subverting this with its + endings. While all new endings still have the humanistic message in the end, the + endings present it in a way that still incorporates the values of the Law and Chaos factions.
• Bottomless Magazines : Well, your gun's magic costs you MP, but otherwise it's got infinite ammo; for its default attack, it requires 0 MP, so you effectively do have an unlimited amount of regular bullets.
• In line with Shin Megami Tensei tradition, beating the game's superbosses lets you fuse them for your own use, but by that point you don't have anything worth using them on, barring perhaps the final bosses.
• The Chakra Elixir, obtained after beating the base game's superboss, is a reusable Chakra Drop, ensuring that you'll never run out of MP on your travels. However, by this point you've gathered enough forma to create more Chakra Drops than you'll ever need, and that's not before going into the stronger MP recovery items.
• Beating the ultimate bosses of Redux grants the player the Magellan Sub-App, which fully displays the map at all times. However, it's a superfluous reward, because by that point the player is likely to already have made the Columbus Sub-App, which makes mapping incredibly convenient. The Magellan Sub-App doesn't even contribute to map completion for the game's own Cartography Sidequest .
• Breaking Old Trends : The new endings in Redux are tonally the opposite of the original endings, and ending tones in general in Shin Megami Tensei. Generally, in Strange Journey in particular, the Law and Chaos endings tend to be rather cynical depictions of their alignments, with Neutral serving as the Golden Ending for humanity. The new Law and Chaos endings are the happiest Law and Chaos endings the series has ever had, with Humanity thriving within the context of the respective alignment, but it's new Neutral ending is one of the most cynical, with the hero choosing to remain on the moon, knowing that the Schwarzwelt will inevitably return again and again until one day humanity learns to change its nature, with no real indication that will ever happen.
• If you attempt to talk to a Dark-aligned demon (which cannot be recruited through normal negotiation) who has the "little kid" personality, they'll admit outright that the only reason they won't talk to you is because the game mechanics for Dark demons won't let them.
• In fact, any answers regarding yourself as a Protagonist (which can happen with any demon) can get major points with either Jack. It's still subjected to RNG whether it'll get good or bad responses, but the Jack Bros. rarely get angry with this topic.
• Exploration through the sectors is routinely gated by locked doors, and the only way to open them is with Main App upgrades, developed from rare forma obtained by progressing or completing plot-mandatory Main Missions. On a couple of occasions, invisible enemies prevent your progress until you upgrade your Enemy Search App to see and beat them.
• Sector Horologium gets a little egregious regarding the initial elevator that leads straight to the sector's boss. After the route lock, the elevator remains functional in the Chaos route so you can visit the boss and receive your next mission. In the Law and Neutral routes, though, the elevator mysteriously stops functioning to force you to progress a similar mission. After it's completed, a miniboss then destroys the elevator, forcing you to explore the rest of the sector.
• In the original, Eastern Grus , which is only accessible on a New Game Plus via the Angels' Phase A Sanctum . A large, grueling extension of Grus's basement floors filled with teleporters and traps, leading up to Alilat . If you get Enemy Search C in the final area and beat Alilat , you get to fight the strongest boss in the game: the Demiurge .
• In Redux , the Womb of Grief is a Labyrinth of Amala type example, acting as an extended dungeon you progress through as you go through the game, with its own bosses to go with it, though like Amala, there are endings that go with it. A straighter example in the vein of the still-present Eastern Grus is the Lower Layer of the Empyrean Ascent. While simply a boss corridor on the first playthrough, Louisa Ferre will be present in a conspicuous alcove on later playthroughs and take you to the rest of the floor to fight her faction's traditional generals.
• Played straight and subverted in a hilarious way on a mission for Anthony. When he says that his luck with women is horrible and asks for your thoughts, you are given the following choices: "I don't know...", "If you ask me..." and "Maybe...". The subversion is that all three choices all lead up to him changing his mind and asking you not to tell him because his self esteem would be shot.
• The last question you must answer when you first get the Demonica is: "You have been sent to the Schwarzwelt, where conditions are expected to be harsh. Yet you have advanced equipment, a strong ship, the latest tech, and dependable comrades. Will the Schwarzwelt investigation mission succeed?". The only valid answer is "Yes".
• Justified at the alignment lock. If you are too devoutly Lawful or Chaotic, Ubergestalt Gore declares you a lost cause and immediately attacks without even bothering to ask you what your ideals are.
• Your final decision at the end of each path, including the new endings in Redux , do not even give you an option to refuse to finish your mission.
• Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp" : What would be called an item shop in other RPGs is instead called a fabrication lab. You can spend Macca—the franchise's staple currency and energy source—to manufacture (i.e. buy) items, and dispose (i.e. sell) items to get some Macca out of them. This explains why there's No Hero Discount ; the Red Sprite needs the Macca to offset the energy used to produce goods for its crew.
• Can't Argue with Elves : Or Demons or Angels. Both sides delight in slinging well-placed barbs towards our violent tendencies, frivolousness, greed and wastefulness, as opposed to them who are in tune with nature and strong in the case of the former and wise, polite and moral in the case of the latter. Surely they're justified in their judgement of our poor, clumsy, violent, weak, stupid species... right? Wrong, and the key to getting the good ending is making sure you don't get suckered in, call them out on their extremism, and then whooping both sides for the sake of the human race and the one thing it has that they could never understand: the power to change .
• Cast from Hit Points : Averted! Unlike most previous MegaTen games released in the past ten or so years, physical attacks in Strange Journey run off of MP, not HP. Though this means that your physical attackers won't kill themselves by punching the enemy, it also means they might not be able to do their special moves too often before you need to hit them with a Chakra Drop.
• Redux pulls one for the original Neutral Ending, the only one where humanity didn't get brainwashed or reduced to the level of animals. Turns out all that effort spent closing the Schwarzwelt went to waste when it manifested again, this time with nobody to stop it... except for Alex, who went back in time to undo that whole mess by killing the main character. The new Neutral Ending properly puts an end to the Schwarzwelt's threat, but now the immortal MC is tasked with destroying each instance of the Schwarzwelt as it recurs, and humanity ends up relying on another immortal being for their safety.
• There's another one for Law, which was already a horrifying route to begin with. It turns out that not only does Law destroy humanity's minds and leave them endlessly praising God, it doesn't even work . Half of humanity resists Zelenin's song, leading the Brainwashed and Crazy ones to commit genocide on an unprecedented scale to build God's Kingdom. Once again, Alex has to go back and prevent humanity from destroying itself.
• Even Jimenez and Zelenin's Demonicas are telling you their alignment. And their skin color, too.
• You didn't seriously think the Gigantic would just stay gone, did you?
• You will encounter a statue of Asura before the demon manifests in it . And you know you'll have to deal with it before long...
• Clothes Make the Superman : The Demonica suit, which is the actual thing gaining all the levels and allowing you to speak with demons. In fact, in this game, demons are completely invisible to the naked eye without the Demon Summoning Program! Taking off the suit in the Schwarzwelt is a sure way to die, too; it may look like an Earthly environment, but the demons forgot to reproduce that pesky thing called "air."
• Coincidental Broadcast : As the Schwarzwelt Joint Project looks at pictures captured by their probes, the broadcast shows crimes related to the sector they show. Antlia is shown with a war with Eastern Europe, Carina is shown with lootings in Central and South America, Bootes is shown with sex crimes in Tokyo, and Delphinus is shown with pollution in Central Asia. This is one of the reasons they initially think there's some kind of transmission error when they see what looks like Earth-like terrain in what's supposed to be an alien dimension.
• As with recent Shin Megami Tensei games prior to this, the first mandatory demon you recruit (and who gives you the whole Negotiation Tutorial in the first place) is a friendly Pixie.
• The "recipe" for fusing Shiva should be old hat to MegaTen veterans: Barong + Rangda.
• In the Mara's desire EX mission, Mara says that she will be patient and wait for the protagonist to beat Seraph , since she doesn't want to be turned into a slime again.
• Of course, there's also the whole endgame, which has the Chaos Hero turning into a half-demon and the Law Hero transformed into an angel.
• Slime's Compendium entry refers to the demon and human realms as Atziluth and Assiah .
• Orias, the very first boss of the game, was also the very first boss of Shin Megami Tensei I .
• The ultimate Neutral demon, Masakado, nulls expel and curse while resisting everything else except gun and almighty. This is a nod to the Masakados Magatama in Nocturne , which nulled everything except Almighty. The Gun element did not exist in Nocturne , which is why gun attacks work normally on Masakado.
• The hallway leading to the Demiurge , complete with a voice speaking throughout, is a reference to those traditionally preceding YHVH .
• The Womb of Grief in Redux is structured largely like another remake dungeon: the Labyrinth of Amala . It's completely optional and divided into mini-dungeons that open up as you progress through the game, and like the True Demon ending, this game's new endings require you to complete it. There's also the case of the Third Sphere, which runs on a gimmick reminiscent of the Dante Tag sequence from Amala's Third Kalpa.
• Cool Ship : All ships sent to investigate the Schwartzwelt. All five are several-story tall tanks with VTOL capabilities, an obscene amount of infrastructure supporting them and their crew (bleeding-edge sickbays, construction laboratories capable of mantaining Powered Armor suits, processing new, hitherto unknown forms of matter and creating incredible new technology, plasma shields, nav A.I.s , engines that require a Tokamak reactor only to get started ), dimensional-crossing technology and plasma armor . The most advanced and retrofitted of the line, the Lightning , even has limited reality-warping technology . Of course, it's too energy-consuming to even allow it to move while in use, but still ...
• Combination Attack : This is what Demon Co-Op attacks basically are. When the player or their allied demon inflicts damage to an enemy demon that they are weak to or inflicts a Critical Hit to them, the player's demons of the same alignment gang up on a single enemy and deal Non-Elemental damage to them. Abusing this mechanic is cruicial when fighting against Shekinah in her second boss phase.
• Copy Protection : Almost to EarthBound (1994) levels. Playing this game on emulator or a flash cart results in no random encounters, which makes proceeding through the game difficult. Even if you managed to get past that, the game performs a different save routine resulting in corrupt save data, which is then deleted upon attempting to load it! Get past that , and the game begrudgingly lets you play, but still crashes at random every so often.
• Cosmetic Award : In the menu, you can find a list of various things you've accomplished, an amusing description to go along with it, and a title or "medal" case that serves as nothing more than bragging rights. Some of the things you have to pull off are impressive, like beating hidden bosses. Others are silly, like slamming into the walls 255 times (which you'll likely do a lot by accident anyway).
• Cosmic Egg : While it's never stated whether or not the universe itself hatched from them, the Cosmic Eggs of the game have the power to remake the Earth as a world of absolute Law or Chaos. They can also be detonated in order to destroy the Schwarzwelt instead .
• Crapsack World : Although not immediately obvious, you eventually realize that this game's version of Earth has serious problems even without the Schwarzwelt bearing down on it.
• Lampshaded by Tyler: "We've got a way to fight diseases no one has ever seen? Wow. We're so prepared it's scary."
• Creepy Child : Wouldn't be a MegaTen game without Alice. Doesn't looking at her skinning, salting and devouring a living rabbit make you want to Die For Her?
• Crystal Spires and Togas : The World of Law gives off this impression.
• Dark World : The Schwarzwelt is this right down to the name note  which translates from German to "black world" .
• Dark Is Evil : Technically, Light and Dark aren't even fighting in this game; a "Dark" demon can be encountered and fought but can't be negotiated with (so to get them, you also need to create them via Fusion). Light and Dark demons can be either Chaos or Law-based, too. That said, Dark demons and humans mostly share a mutual hatred, which is why they refuse to talk to you in most instances.
• Death World : If the demon-filled hell gate doesn't kill you, maybe the thousand-meter-tall plasma storm surrounding the gate will. And make sure you have your helmet on at all times. And don't eat the food! And mind the demons!
• Degraded Boss : Orias. Normally, he should be around level 27, but when you first encounter him, he's level 7.
• Developer's Foresight : Your first encounter with Alex in Redux is a Hopeless Boss Fight as she massacres the protagonist and the party before they can even move. If the party survives the initial onslaught, the game eventually reveals that she has infinite health and unlimited turns to go to town on your party, preventing you from ever trying to defeat her. And for targets immune to phys and gun, she unleashes a guaranteed Almighty instakill.
• Diegetic Interface : The game's interface is actually part of the suit.
• Difficulty Levels : Redux adds difficulty levels: Casual, Standard, Expert, and Impossible in increasing difficulty. The last of these is only available on a New Game Plus .
• Digital Piracy Is Evil : When in the second stage of conversing with a Data-personality demon, such as Sudama, it may ask you what the mask of the Demonica is for. If you answer "It analyzes ROMs ": "That is, taboo of taboos! And this, is punishment!" The demon suddenly attacked!
• Disc-One Final Dungeon : Sector Eridanus . Particularly notable in that it does not cause an Interface Spoiler since you get the opportunity to explore almost its entire map. Not to mention the traps. Oh dear god, the traps .
• Oni is one of the earliest examples, being recruitable as soon as the second floor of Antlia, at level 8. One of their attacks is Fang Breaker, a physical skill which reduces offenses of the target, effectively functioning like an offensive Tarunda with a marginally cheaper MP cost, making its one of the best possible ways to beat the upcoming first sector boss. Once it overstayed its welcome, Oni's demon source offers Tarukaja, and can be rigged to have Fang Breaker which allows you to carry over the move through inheritance or source if you want to.
• Zan-Ei is alvailable from Jueyuan which is a level 10 demon, 2 levels above Oni. Normally, its a significant increase in damage when compared to Fang Breaker, and is comparable to the best physical moves in the game, but when used under New Moon, a condition that is easily rigged for important boss fights, Zan-Ei does 50% more damage, making it stronger than most random multi-hit physical moves on average. Only something like Madness Crush beats it, and that skill is earliest available from level 50+ demons. As with Fang Breaker above, Jueyuan doesn't have Zan-Ei as a natural skill on its demon source, forcing you to rig it to pass the move through the source.
• The Frost Cannon has great power with skills corresponding to 3 elements and can be obtained from an easy EX mission early in the third sector. It can last you until very late game, even up to the 7th sector.
• Around Bootes you can also fuse Morax with a source to cover up his weakness, and the special fusion and source leave the possibility of him having all four elements .
• Shiisaa is level 16 but comes packing War Cry, equivalent to two uses of Tarunda and letting you defang bosses in one or two moves, as opposed to needing to wail on them with Fang Breaker for a while. Although this MP cost is steep, it can easily become a mainstay of your party thanks to its habits of showing up in D-Sources, and will only overstay its welcome once you find Luster Candy and Debilitate.
• High Pixie is obtainable at level 19, comes with Bufula and a gun skill and innately inherits Magaru and Mazio from her components. With the assistance of D-Sources she can also be imparted Agilao or Maragi, giving her access to six different damage sources for setting off Co-Op attacks, making her a keeper until level 30 or so. Her D-Source also contains Mediarama and Recovery Boost, letting you turn a demon of your choice into a potent healer.
• Black Frost and Frost Ace are level 30 and 34 respectively, and both come with Bufudyne (and Black Frost has Mamudoon); few other demons around those levels have high-level -dyne spells. In addition, neither one has any weaknesses and both have several resists and immunities. Black Frost's D-Source contains both Agidyne and Bufudyne, lending extra elemental flexibility to the caster you use it on.
• The Manshonyaga is greatly overpowered, mostly due to its insanely accurate Stone Bullet skill — and very, very few enemies (most of them bosses or Fiends) are immune to Petrification. While the Jackal Gun offers additional gun skills and better base power, it also demands the player hunt the rare White Rider .
• The Uber-Pixie you can get through a Password provided by Atlus themselves starts at Lv 1, but has a magic stat of 10 (normally, Pixies have a 3) and a luck stat of 99 (compared to the usual 5). On top of this, it has the spells Megidolaon and Mediarahan for heavy damage on every enemy and full HP Recovery for every ally respectively! Granted, you have to pay a very huge amount of Macca to summon it from your Demon Compendium, but once you can afford it and level it up accordingly, hooooo boy... The password itself is: Madoka Ueno in the original and Stay Faithful in Redux .
• D-Sources can provide very strong skills ahead of time if you take your time in fully analyzing your demons. Examples include second-tier skills as early as level 10 (e.g. Zionga from Hamsa and Bufula from Apsaras and Gremlin), -dyne spells at level 30 (Agidyne, Bufudyne, and Mamudoon from Black Frost), Luster Candy and Debilitate at level 40 (Vivian and Thoth respectively) and raw physical power (Charge and Berserker God from Momunofu, Grand Tack from Pabilsag). The kicker probably goes to Ammut's and Girimehkala's D-Sources, which pack Victory Cry and Enduring Soul and are accessible as early as level 55 and 57 respectively.
• Doomed by Canon : The Deathtament spinoff is about the crew of the Gigantic, which is discovered to be inoperable and deserted near the end of the game. The end of the manga shows most of its crew being slaughtered by demons hiding among them while they were escaping the Womb of Grief; the only surviving members are the Strike Team who stayed behind expecting its return...
• Door to Before : Hidden doors opened with the Gate Search Main App can serve as shortcuts for repeat trips, but they can only be unlocked from one side.
• The third challenge from the Heralds in Eridanus is to fight both of them at once with a team whose average level is below 45.
• In Redux , if you beat Maria but don't choose to help Alex, she taps into her demonic heritage and summons Amon and Shaytan to her side.
• For your Demonica, Magic. You'd expect it to influence how powerful your Gun skills are, seeing as Gun skills are basically your suit's version of magic spells, but that's actually the domain of the Strength stat. Magic instead influences how powerful your attack items are, which don't come very often and thus can fall into Too Awesome to Use territory easily, while MP can be recharged onboard the Red Sprite and at healing stations in the field for a small fee.
• At higher levels, your dump stat becomes Agility for a number of reasons. Since your character's damage output is limited by his inability to use magic or skills, it is often the demons that will be pulling the weight of the party around, meaning that his primary use becomes the item caddy (where every item has a maximum stock of 99). Since items have turn priority, it doesn't matter how slow he is, he will still go first. Since a missed attack carries no extra penalties in this game (as this game does not use the Press Turn system used in mainline games from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne onwards and Digital Devil Saga ), the main character has no reason to invest in accuracy unless he really wants to be an active participant for damage. The last and probably the most important reason is that with the way armor works, it is entirely possible to have your character take next to no damage from attacks simply by stacking magic and vitality. By the end of the game, the only stats that really matter to you is Magic (magic defense), vitality (physical defense and HP) and Luck (survival).
• Earth Is a Battlefield : While the upper portion of Antila is a Slippy-Slidey Ice World supposedly set deep in the bowels of the Antarctic, much of the lower levels of the sector are set in a burning urban landscape ruled by Tyrant Morax, who believes the best way to kill humans is to mimic how they kill each other: through modern warfare. One character even comments the area looks like it came out of a World War instead of a more recent conflict, and in the game's story, a prolonged war is going on in Eastern Europe.
• Negative Space Wedgie : An exponentially-increasing quantum gate thinger...
• Ironic Hell : ... a monument to all your sins ...
• Another Dimension : ... and an alternate land that exists alongside the Earth where Mem Aleph resides when it isn't engulfing the Earth. It takes the ideal energy of the Earth and sentient lifeforms that evolve into it to become a beautiful realm, but becomes a Death World as the negative energies created by polluting the Earth come into it .
• Encounter Bait / Encounter Repellant : Both abilities exist as sub-apps in the Demonica, each with two levels of effectiveness: Enemy Welcome and Enemy Challenge for the former, and Enemy Begone and Enemy Lullaby for the latter. After beating the game once, you also unlock Red Carpet, which turns off random encounters entirely. Redux adds Enemy Banish, obtainable very early by completing an EX Mission in the Womb of Grief, and can be obtained on the first playthrough. This app prevents encounters with enemies a certain number of levels below you, making it functionally identical to Red Carpet if you grind enough.
• "End of the World" Special : Subverted in the neutral ending; you have Arthur destroy the Schwarzwelt instead. Played straight in the other endings; you throw the Cosmic Eggs into the Vanishing Point and create a world of Law/Chaos.
• Enemy-Detecting Radar : The Demonica HUD includes a moving bar at the top of your field of vision: blue for standard situations, yellow for "alert: demons nearby," and red for "attack is imminent."
• Enemy Scan : Another function of the Demonica suit. However, in order to fully analyze a demon, including type, weaknesses, HP , skills, et al, you must encounter them and defeat them several times; if they're already in your party, their actions can also be analyzed by the Demonica and boost the scan rate.
• Energy Economy : It's not certain if the demons regard Macca as energy, but since you're humans and therefore completely outside the demonic market, energy is almost all it's good for (besides bribing opposing demons to join your side). See No Hero Discount below.
• This is not the first Schwarzwelt to wipe an advanced civilization off the face of the Earth... and unless something is done about its origin, it won't be the last. Or, worse, it will be the last, because it will have succeeded in its original task of forcibly kicking the Law "taint" out for all eternity . Naturally, the Law Path has its own ideas on how to end the cycle .
• Eridanus actually is symbolic in that it represents how some demons like Ouroboros Maia see the new world would be like: A perfect garden where science and nature coexist without humans around to trample it.
• Evil Counterpart : Jack Squad. They even use pitch black Demonicas in contrast to the Team's golden ones.
• Evil Makeover : Arguable on the "evil" part, but par for the course amongst Shin Megami Tensei games. A couple of times, you see an important character leave behind their humanity and they gain a radically new appearance which is simultaneously badass and off-putting.
• Evil Twin : Doppelgangers, true to their name, are nothing more than grinning shadows of the protagonist.
• Arthur (see Shout-Out below) to HAL 9000 . Especially at the end of the Neutral path, when he confesses fear before performing his Heroic Sacrifice . By the same token, the ascended Gore is Arthur's counterpart —an expy of David Bowman.
• While it's in the same game as what it's an Expy to, Demonee-ho is a joke on the main character. Sort of like Raiho .
• Even further, the Anti-Demon Corps' research facilities and headquarters performed the exact same kind of horrific experiments with demons and devilmen as Jack Squad's crew did, leading the protagonist to the same conclusion that Humans Are the Real Monsters .
• Extreme Omnivore : Horkos, rather befitting the fact that Sector Carina manifests as an outsize shopping mall. There are numerous conveyor belts ferrying a constant stream of sides of meat to unseen kitchens, which are never enough to slake Horkos's hunger. And the first time you see him, he's busily eating the Elve . In battle, he may take a grisly bite out of you to restore his health (Taking a Bite), or he'll use Grocery Run to call up one of his minions, so he can eat them. And his minions are demon pigs, too. Do not obstruct his meals if you know what's good for you.
• Face–Heel Turn : Not that Jack's Squad were friendly allies to begin with, but at least there was some cooperation and willingness to help the Red Sprite's crew as long as it didn't interfere with their goals.
• Faceless Goons : What most members of the Strike Team are reduced to, thanks to their Demonica helmets. You may know their names, and they may sometimes have individual field sprites and battle stances, but you'll only see the faces of a select few. It seems to work against them, as many Strike Team members end up getting killed rather quickly .
• The Fair Folk : There's a recurring series of side-missions where you help a Fairy Pixie build a Fairy village. These ones are generally pretty nice to you since you recruited them; enemy fairies, on the other hand, can be very mischevous and cruel.
• Faux Affably Evil : Captain Jack .
• Mem Aleph on the Law and Neutral paths, Pillar Zelenin on the Chaos path.
• In Redux , should Maria be defeated in the Womb of Grief and you still opt for either the original Law or Neutral endings, Amon, Shaytan, and a demonically strengthened Alex fight together after the original Final Boss's defeat. They still do this on Chaos, but are fought before Pillar Zelenin .
• Final-Exam Boss : While not quite the final boss, Ouroboros in its second form will require a pretty much flawless defense to defeat, as it possesses insta-kill magic, an elemental attack, a heavy physical attack, and can inflict every single status ailment.
• Fission Mailed : After briefly scouting out the first part of Bootes in Redux , Alex appears, murders the player's party , and leaves them to die. The usual Game Over sequence instead transitions to a cutscene of the protagonist keeling over in a pool of his blood, but is saved from the brink of death by Demeter, which sets up the introduction of the Womb of Grief.
• Five-Token Band : There's the main protagonist (Asian in the Japanese version, Caucasian in the NA version), Jimenez (Hispanic), Zelenin (Caucasian), and Gore (black).
• Once they've gotten over their reservations and initial fear, Irving and Chen are positively thrilled at devising new and exciting equipment with the Forma (Schwarzwelt-borne materials) you scavenge for them.
• On a less pleasant note, Jack's Squad .
• Four Is Death : The Schwarzwelt is ruled by four "Kings" and four "Mothers".
• From Bad to Worse : How the Schwarzwelt expedition kicks off. And how it continues afterwards.
• Fun with Acronyms : DEMO untable N ext I ntegrated C apability A rmor
• As per Shin Megami Tensei tradition, you can fuse demons with one another to create new ones, which can inherit skills from their progenitors. However, since demons don't learn skills by leveling up in this game (all they do is replace existing skills or drop their Demon Source ), you can feel free to fuse to your heart's content.
• Jimenez does one with Bugaboo to save its life.
• Future Badass : The Protagonist in the conclusion of the Madness of Yggdrasil EX Mission.
• Gaia's Vengeance : This is what the Schwarzwelt is initially assumed to be—an onslaught of (later-proven-to-be-demonic) antibodies to protect Earth from human corruption. Afterwards, the Schwarwelt will rebuild the Earth after consuming it as revealed in the Chaos route .
• Gaiden Game : One of two direct spinoffs to the mainline Shin Megami Tensei games, the other being Shin Megami Tensei if... . If however is revealed to be set in the same timeline as Devil Summoner and Persona , where the events of Shin Megami Tensei I never happened and the Earth was spared an apocalypse. Strange Journey meanwhile is a Military Science Fiction set 20 Minutes into the Future in its own contained universe, without much connection to other games.
• While searching the remains of the Elve for part after defeating Horkos, Jimenez manages to recover Bugaboo's forma/D Source, and uses it with the data registered in his Compendium to resurrect Bugaboo offscreen. He even mentions that because he's using the Compendium data, he has to teach Bugaboo English again.
• When enemies hit you in the middle of a cutscene, the battle HUD shows up and everyone actually takes damage. Granted, it's not a big deal in terms of gameplay since you can just heal the damage and it isn't lethal, but it drives home the point that you're dealing with an entity you do not want to mess with.
• When you fight Zelenin in the Neutral and Chaos routes, one of her attacks is the Mind Control song that Mastema has such big plans for . It, naturally, inflicts Charm .
• Averted when trying to speak to Jack's Squad soldiers in combat. Doing so might net you insults and hostile remarks, because you're using your Demon Summoning program to speak to the them when you use the talk command, instead of talking to them normally. Jack's soldiers are all humans and can communicate with the player without having to be in their suits, as they are only fought in an environment that is safe for humans.
• In the battle with Asura, the Hate Plague he's been inflicting on your squadmates takes the form of Asura Roga, an attack that inflicts Rage upon random party members.
• In Redux , Demeter says in her first scene that she's so weak she would lose to a Pixie. You can fuse her in a New Game Plus , and not only does she lack any offensive moves naturally, but her sole weakness is Fire, Pixie's element of choice in this game.
• While otherwise averted with the Jack's Squad members , the game treats them as separate from their demons for combat purposes, meaning that you can still talk to their demons. All of the demons they use are Dark, so you can't negotiate with them, but "friendly demon" reactions still occur...
• Officially, the protagonist is in command of the Strike Team after Gore's death; while Arthur does serve as mission analyst and advisor, the protagonist has to be the one to decide whether to accept Arthur's advice and to carry out the orders. However, you, the player, don't really have much say in whether to have your character accept or reject Arthur's analyses (to be fair, it's not like other options that aren't "give up" exist when you're in the middle of an Negative Space Wedgie that humans know nothing about) and there's no squad mechanic for your fellow human soldiers in this game, so in terms of gameplay you're Authority in Name Only . The closest you get to that role is locking the game into one of the Alignment-Based Endings , which will determine what happens to the Red Sprite and its crew.
• Game of Nim : One EX Mission consists of winning at a counting-based variant of this game. Facing one of your crewmates you play "Don't Count Thirty". The solution is to control every fourth number—1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, and 29.
• Asura/Asherah .
• Louisa Ferre (who looks strangely like Alice )...
• Mara , of all things. Looks the same, just claims to be a lady.
• At the end of Redux , the Three Wise Men fuse into Shekinah, a female .
• Genre Shift : While most SMT trappings are present, Strange Journey switches up the setting with a military science fiction theme in Antarctica instead of Urban Fantasy , and the focus is on working adults instead of youth. The major change in focus and setting, despite the game having the trappings of mainline SMT is partially why it's not labelled as SMT IV as originally intended. The actual Shin Megami Tensei IV would return to Urban Fantasy and having teenagers getting their bonds and world views shattered.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss : Horkos flees each time you hit him with the Horkos Buster .
• Gilded Cage : The Law faction's endgame is the effective conversion of the entire planet into one of these, a world of peace and happiness, but also no dissent or free will, period .
• Glass Cannon : Asura can kill you like a traditional MegaTen boss can, but will go down quickly if you can avoid that.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom : As a callback to the early Super Famicom games, many demon sprites have these, usually flashing red and black or red and white.
• Go Wait Outside : There's a dwarf in one area who will make you special weapons if you bring him the right forma, but it takes him a set number of moon phases to finish.
• YHVH Himself doesn't put in an appearance, but the Three Wise Men are presumably acting on His orders, and they aren't any nicer than he is in earlier installments. There are hints they're actually acting on their own initiative as YHVH has been broken into pieces and the only one remaining is too weak to do anything, but, aside from SMT II , angels don't usually have a history of that in SMT.
• Two New Game Plus quests more than imply that Metatron and Demiurge are Pieces of God who lost to the Mothers before the story began. The Piece that takes Metatron's form even says that God forgot his love for humans and humans stopped believing him in return. However, after fusing with the Demiurge piece it shows this God hasn't changed at all. Luckily you have a chance to seal him away for good thanks to a mysterious female entity who is not aligned with Law or Chaos . This leads to the question of whether the Angels are actually acting on their own agenda or were following the Piece that took Metatron's form .
• Mastema and Louisa/Lucifer imply there are actually two distinct incarnations of God, one which was worshipped by humans and ruled the Earth before being taken apart by the Mother Goddesses, while another is the one whom Mastema seeks blessings from and Lucifer defied, who predates humanity . Schwarzwelt Reminiscence artbook has the game developers explain the God which works through the Three Wise Men are born from the will of the Earth just like Mem Aleph, while Mastema and angels around him are visitors, alien to this world; meaning both Lucifer and the other God are as well. Whether or not this one is evil or not is unclear; Lucifer claims the madness of this God was what created humanity . The Updated Re Release muddles things further by having the Three Wise Men reform into Shekinah (a feminine expression of YHVH), who claims to exterminate humans and protect Earth on behalf of God/Great Will; but the Metatron/Demiurge fusion also becomes far more reasonable and even join you in defeating Shekinah . All in all, this trope is ultimately zigzagged.
• The Law+ and Chaos+ endings in Redux are much more optimistic than their vanilla counterparts. The Neutral+ ending, on the other hand, is more bittersweet.
• The Schwarz (black) welt (world). One demon conversation has the demon translate it as its probable intended meaning, "Black Horizon," which the Schwartzwelt certainly is; a zone of blackness enveloping the Earth.
• There's also Commander Gore, who becomes the "ubergestalt."
• There's an endgame almighty-gun skill called Freischutz, which means "The Marksman" or "The Freeshooter".
• Greater-Scope Villain : The unnamed client corporation that hired Captain Jack. We know they exist and are presumably corrupt , but nothing else is ever revealed about them.
• Green Aesop : A driving force of the entire plot. Earth at the very start of the game has turned into a hellhole of pollution, famine, and insanity, and this is highlighted in the sectors Carina , Delphinus , and Eridanus . Carina reflects mankind's greedy and endless desire for resources and wealth, Delphinus reflects the results of mankind's greed, depicting endless trash and pollution, and Eridanus depicts what Earth will be like when the Schwarzwelt removes the humans from Earth. It also is an important part of the endings. The Neutral ending implies that the surviving crew will have the responsibility of teaching mankind about what they witnessed, so the Schwarzwelt doesn't manifest itself again; the Chaos ending explicitly states that, in its Social Darwinist world where only the strong survive, Earth will revert to a wild and untamed world and Mother Nature will be free to flourish again; finally, the Law ending states that, with every last living thing on Earth in the thrall of Zelenin's Song, mindlessly singing God's praises for all eternity, mankind won't spoil Earth's bounty and the environment will recover gloriously.
• Stuck on a certain warp puzzle in Horologium's 4th floor? You're supposed to use the right warp in the right moon phase. A nearby NPC gives a hint to the solution, but you're also likely to miss it.
• The fifth floor of the Womb of Grief has bizarre teleporters that only work depending on which previous teleporter you took. Fortunately, there are a few NPCs that give you hints on how they work. Meanwhile, the warp puzzle in the Empyrean Ascent has similar features but operates a little differently, but you're meant to discover the mechanics the hard way without anyone to assist you with them.
• The ultimate superboss Demiurge reflects everything but expel and curse, which he's immune to. However, if you challenge him on a New or Full Moon, he's weak to one damaging element, which he shuffles around every two turns. Most players don't catch on to this quirk, or read about it but forget about the Moon phase bit, and simply bypass the gimmick by spamming Almighty attacks.
• Hannibal Lecture : Every major boss gives one based on the theme of their sector. Your response to these lectures (including agreeing with them) heavily swing your alignment one way or the other.
• Harder Than Hard : Redux has Impossible difficulty, which is harder than Expert. While normally only available on a New Game Plus , selecting Impossible also disables some of the bonus features, on top of enforcing We Cannot Go On Without You by removing the "March to Death" Sub-App.
• Happy Ending Override : The original Neutral ending sees the Red Sprite crew complete their mission, and it is implied they attempt to inspire the rest of humanity to change its ways to prevent the re-emergence of the Schwarzwelt. In Redux , on the Neutral route, Alex comes to inform the protagonist that their efforts were futile, and she hails from a future where the Schwarzwelt reappeared and erased humanity after it had grown complacent.
• Hate Plague : The Delphinus Parasite.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing : Ryan and his men, after Captain Jack's death.
• Within that hell gate lies Orcus, who is redesigned as this in reference to his roots as an emissary to Hell. He still uses the older look though, as Horkos, Carina's end boss.
• Head-Turning Beauty : Zelenin is a dark version. If Asura's taunts are to be believed, she's deeply insecure about her good looks and feels as though her male colleagues only keep her around to ogle her.
• Herald : The name for the Seraph clan in this game.
• Heroic Mime : As per franchise standard. You also define his beliefs via decisions in-game.
• Heroic Sacrifice : Arthur in the Neutral path's ending, and is referred to as such by the surviving crew .
• Holier Than Thou : Even mentioned by Jimenez, regarding Zelelin after her transformation
• Hopeless Suitor : Anthony keeps crushing on female demons, only to be turned down by them without fail. Lampshaded by the game itself as each and every time he reveals a new crush, even the music stops to show the Protagonist's mute horror. It gets more complicated for him when he tries to invoke tropes such as Really 700 Years Old and Defrosting Ice Queen , much to his crush's disgust. At this point, it's obvious that this quest-line is both an acknowledgement and admonishment of certain people who fetishize the demons in the franchise.
• Some humanoid demons can come close to this, between their dress code and flirty personality.
• And then there's the outright hypersexuals among them. Incubus also embodies this physically (q.v. his stinger and brow), while Succubus and Lilim fully befit the trope. Lilim even visits the aforementioned Anthony in an offscreen Erotic Dream , and becomes the subject of another of his side quests.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action : The demon Myrmecolion is "the result of a lion and ant mating". Wrap your mind around that one.
• Humans Are Special : The game is actually quite pro-humanity, though it may take more than one playthrough to realize it. Our technology let us fight evenly with the great mythical figures of old, but more than that, despite our faults we have the ability to change our ways, which is more than the angels and demons can say, or even comprehend . More than perhaps any other game in the series, the Law and Chaos options are essentially giving up trying to sway humanity, since in both, humanity is forced to be a certain way .
• Humans Are the Real Monsters : Many demons will be quick to point this out, and the Schwartzwelt itself is essentially a hell on earth, with half of it being a mockery of modern human society and the other half being a tribute to the power of the demons. The more wild/bloodthirsty demons clearly state how awed they are by the bloodshed and destruction humans produce with a grudging respect/obvious distaste, though of course, demons are just as big as hypocrites as humans are. It's still possible to convince some demons that mankind isn't so bad, though. Jack's Squad plays this trope straight; Negotiation with them in battle will only earn you insults, even though you're a human just like them, and they experiment on demons for profit and personal gain, not to mention how they kidnap and successfully fuse Jimenez with Bugaboo.
• Humans Through Alien Eyes : And like the above, this is particularly evident in the Negotiation sequences.
• It'll take you a hell of a long time to do it, but it can be done. A more localized hundred percent completion focuses on fully analyzing demons you've got: it's how you get their Demon Sources (stuff that provides extra skills to demons you fuse) and makes them much cheaper to summon from the Compendium.
• If you can somehow map every tile in the game on one playthrough, the Dantalian on the top floor of Eridanus will give you a whopping ten of each stat-boosting Incense. Keep in mind this requires, among other things, deliberately falling into every pit trap and tripping every teleport hazard.
• Hypocrite : Mastema claims he's acting in humanity's collective best interests and wants to create a world free of human conflict and selfishness. If you're playing Chaos, however, you eventually find out that he's motivated purely by egomania and self-interest, as he feels if he succeeds in his mission YHVH will give him a promotion, and he knowingly and gleefully ruins an innocent woman's life to get there .
• Hariti's story in the game actually parallels her story in Buddhist mythology.
• The Amenomurakumo (named Kusanagi in Redux ) clocks in as second strongest compared to the ultimate alignment-exclusive weaponry, but is usable by any alignment and is accessed after completing a much simpler EX mission. Redux adds the Amenohabakiri, which can be manufactured and stands toe-to-toe with the Amenomurakumo.
• The Meteor Dragoon and Ebony Tear are among the strongest guns you can manufacture. Though they are not as strong as the ultimate weaponry, these guns grant access to Moan Bullet, which is agreed to be the most reliable of all Almighty gun skills.
• Infinity +1 Sword : Some of the game's strongest weaponry can only be obtained through EX missions. There's one ultimate melee weapon exclusive to each alignment, and one ultimate gun exclusive to Law and Chaos. Redux adds new equipment tied to its ultimate superbosses that outclass the alignment's ultimate equipment.
• There's a Jack Frost in a Demonica suit as a special-password demon. Its name? Demonee-Ho .
• There's also the New MegaTen Sub App. Both "true" note  Shin Megami Tensei means True Reincarnation of the Goddess and "new" can be pronounced shin .
• Interface Screw : A majority of Horologium B5F's floor is invisible. You'll have to poke around blindly to figure out which parts of thin air you can walk on, and your map will outright lie to you on what is and isn't the edge of a platform. A similar phenomenon happens in the Fourth Sphere of the Womb of Grief in Redux .
• Occasionally at the beginning of an encounter, one of the enemy demons will offer to join you free of charge. Most of the time, it's legit, but sometimes its actually this, and they'll actually call you out for falling for it.
• This is how Commander Gore meets his end in Sector Antlia. When he charges in to defend his men from an Orias, the demon pretends to retreat in the face of his onslaught. Once Gore turns to check on the wounded, the demon comes back and deals him a lethal blow.
• Item Crafting : You obtain most of your items, as well as weapon, armor, application, and accessory upgrades, by having the Red Sprite's lab manufacture them by mixing together Forma scavenged during exploration and combat. You can't even buy much more than the most basic items without using up Forma of some kind, so you have to kill many demons and investigate every Forma Search blip on your radar you see.
• It's Personal : This is what greets the Protagonist upon reaching the central chamber of Fornax, and the Tyrants he defeated in the first four sectors proclaim their vengeance towards him .
• Though after leaving he does come back by to give you a forma for helping him .
• Kleptomaniac Hero : You're basically under orders from Irving to pick up every single thing you see. Lampshaded in one EX Mission , where a demon yells at you for getting on his case about taking something when you've been grabbing anything that catches your eye.
• Klingon Promotion : Ryan's promotion to Jack's Squad Commander. He really didn't want that promotion. At the time.
• Lampshade Hanging : Somehow, Jack Frost and Pyro Jack know who the mascot is supposed to be. Pyro Jack actually corrects you and then realizes he doesn't know what a mascot is.
• Most members of the Zealot race can only be obtained through Fusion Accidents. Fortunately, there are Sub-Apps that lets you manipulate the chance of a Fusion Accident on top of guaranteeing it makes a Zealot.
• The Cartography Sidequest issued by the Dantalion in Eridanus's top floor requires that you map out every last tile of the relevant floor. This also includes stepping on every hazard and warp tile, going through every one-way door, and falling into every pit. The southeast corner of Grus 1F is incredibly obnoxious about this, as it involves an absurd amount of backtracking, and the Gate that bars access can only be opened from the other side.
• Last-Name Basis : Unlike in other Megami Tensei games, which use the opposite , you and your fellow crew are addressed by last names; even the in-game menus address you as such. However, a few of the crew will call you by first name when in more informal situations.
• Late to the Tragedy : When the Red Sprite's crew finds the Blue Jet crash site .
• Leitmotif : The melody of the opening theme "The Eternal Throne" gets reprised in "Take the Shield, Raise the Spear." The Law and Chaos themes also get a remix each.
• If you say something about portable videogames to a demon, one might respond with "I'd make one that folds open and has two screens! "
• You can call the Jack brothers mascots. Jack Frost will happily join your stock with no further question because it would be bad for him if he were to hurt the main character, but this does not go well with Pyro: "Hey, you've got the wrong Jack!"
• Some demons will ask you what your favorite kind of video game is, and if you answer that you prefer the old classics, some will get angry at you for being stuck in the past and ask if you're sure there isn't anything about the new ones you like. Given the debate over "old-school" vs. "new-school" MegaTen games...
• Trying to talk to a demon while you have the same demon dead in your party: "If you let my pal down, I'll take you down too! Huh? It'd be game over if that happened? "
• Liberty Over Prosperity : This is the demon's path; not to be confused with the "bad" path, the game makes it fairly clear there is no bad or good path, the demons want everyone to be free in all things, which would result in a dystopian planet with no society because everyone would do what they damn well want, and the angel's path leads to a world were everyone is happy, because they have no other choice but to be happy, and are brainwashed into so. You can also Take a Third Option .
• Light Is Good : Technically, Light and Dark aren't even fighting in this game; a "Light" demon is one that can't be encountered or obtained except through Fusion. Light and Dark demons can be either Chaos or Law-based, too. That said, most of the Light demons tend to be based off of more benevolent deities and mythological critters.
• A lesser version occurs after Maya goes down, when the half-demon Jimenez and the angelic Zelenin state their ultimate positions before leaving the Red Sprite for good, convincing several crewmen to follow them along their respective paths .
• The Point of No Return between the various Multiple Endings . At a certain point, a character forces the Protagonist to decide which faction he will support —earning enmities and alliances depending on his choices.
• Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards : The Co-Op attack mechanic reduces the tactical advantages of scoring critical hits and hitting weaknesses. Because of this, physical attackers are less potent than magic attackers as there are very few enemies weak to phys, while scoring critical hits only gives bonus damage. Not all hope is lost, as strength-oriented characters can still exploit Gun weaknesses that are rather common, and fewer skill slots used on attack skills means room for more support skills. Redux evens the playing field more by adding a Sub-App that allows critical hits to trigger Co-Op attacks.
• Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places : The Red Sprite Crewmember Anthony is this full stop to the point of being Love Makes You Dumb . He constantly tries to seduce demon females by having the PC be a messenger for his advances, even though the demons are for the most part hostile and repeatedly try to kill the Red Sprite Crew and the fact none of the demon females are interested in him.
• Loophole Abuse : The password system is supposed to give players a way to share their custom demons without the need for any direct communication between devices. However, a player can jot down the password for their own newly-fused demon, reload an old save, and use the same password to gain that very same demon without expending the fusion components. While it consumes a fair amount of Macca, it's a convenient way of repeated fusions without consuming D-Sources (especially when customizing demons via Mitama fusions), and it saves on the effort spent on grinding for the Source again.
• Lost Food Grievance : The Side Quest involving Cerberus and Orthrus revolves around an argument over who ate Cerberus's meal.
• Louis Cypher : This time taking the appearance of a young woman , disturbingly similar to a certain famous young girl from a previous game in the franchise. The name she actually goes by is Louisa Ferre.
• Luck-Based Mission : Looking for a Fiend via Enemy Search? Well, they start out with only a 2% chance of spawning. Once you upgrade it to B, the chance does go up... to 5%.
• Lunacy : As another MegaTen tradition, during a Full Moon, demons are too deranged to negotiate with you. However, this time you can install a Sub Application in the Demonica that allows successful negotiations during Full Moons, even with otherwise unrecruitable Dark demons. Unfortunately, they're still drunk on moonshine , so whether or not they like what you have to say is pretty much a coin flip. The moon also changes phases pretty darn fast while you're in the Schwarzwelt, so if you flub the negotiation, it's a while before you hit the next encounter under a full moon.
• Mithras, whose experiments on several humans result in a lobotomy, a draining of blood, loss of air, and an Early-Bird Cameo of the Delphinus Parasite, all of which left the affected crew members dead
• Captain Jack as well, who is what Mithras would be like if he was human. And, you know, even less redeemable .
• Magitek : As with many other MegaTen series entries, you are able to communicate with and control demons thanks to the use of computers. Your "magic" in this game is also limited to the kinds of guns you equip yourself with (which actually uses the physical skill) and expendable items that mimic spells (that actually use your magic stats), but given that they are constructed out of the leftovers of demons combined with human science, they probably ARE shooting magic bullets.
• Manipulative Bastard : Quite possibly you. Demon negotiation is the fine art of lying your ass off to get demons to do what you want, after all.
• Marked Change : After fusing with a demon and becoming half-demonic, Jimenez's strange tattoos stand out visibly through the pitch-black substance that flows over his body. Notable in that he already had them before the fusion, but they were hidden discreetly under his clothes and were easily overlooked .
• The Masquerade : To prevent the populace from falling prey to panic, the world's governments, acting through the Schwarzwelt Joint Project , cover up the existence of the Schwarzwelt as "a ferro-magnetic blizzard" that forced the "withdrawal of nearby bases." This doesn't last too long, though, since the Schwartzwelt is too huge to hide forever and is growing . Eventually, the demons begin invading Australia and South America through the ocean while the humans back on Earth fail to close the Schwartzwelt with an endless rain of nuclear weapons.
• The Maze : Naturally, since it's a Dungeon Crawler . Also contains some nasty Mobile Mazes .
• Messy Pig : Horkos and his cronies. Which he will sometimes eat. This restores his health and confers any status ailments his food is currently suffering.
• The Tamashiro Mirror is needed to help unmask Amaterasu.
• The Sun, Moon, and Star Mirror formas are needed to form Enemy Search B, which is used to identify the invisible assailant in Sector Fornax.
• Money Spider : Minibosses found through "Enemy Search" always drop extremely valuable Forma. You will need to save a few of these to assemble new equipment , but you'll probably need to build that particular item only once, and random encounters yield so little money that Enemy Search Forma becomes your best, and primary, source of income.
• Monster Compendium : Two kinds: Demon Analysis lets you review the stats, attributes, and skills of any demons you've encountered on the field. The more traditional Demonic Compendium only keeps track of demons that have joined you, either by negotiation or fusion, and you can register your customized demons for summoning them as many times as you want (for a price.)
• Mood Whiplash . The first several Anthony missions are silly and hilarious, but the Skogsra one is poignant and a little sad.
• Morality Pet : Bugaboo, to Jimenez
• Multinational Team : The Schwarzwelt Investigational Team consist of an African American (Gore), a Japanese or American depending of the version (the MC), a Russian (Zelenin), an Hispanic (Jimenez) and a few other memebers from other countries like a Texan (Irwing), a Chinese (Chen) a British and an Italian among others.
• Law+ ( Redux ): Zelenin deviates from Mastema's and God's will and creates a new song that only suppresses humanity's violent nature. The world is peaceful and free as humanity solves problems through non-violent means only, but the narration warns that should a threat arise, humanity may not be strong enough to defend itself without a will to fight .
• Chaos+ ( Redux ): The world is regenerated into a form where nature flourishes and humanity can live in harmony with gods, demons and the Earth. Instead of a world ruled by strength, it becomes a world filled with infinite possibilities for humanity, where each person is free to act as they choose .
• Neutral+ ( Redux ): Same as Neutral, but the protagonist decides to live forever on the Moon to act as an eternal guardian of humanity and defend it whenever the Schwarzwelt reappears, until humanity learns its lesson and breaks the Eternal Recurrence themselves .

• Mythology Gag : It's possible on the Womb of Grief in Redux to have an encounter with Pyro Jack, Jack the Ripper (AKA Skeleton Jack) and Jack Frost, a reference to them being the 3 playable characters of Jack Bros. on the Virtual Boy.
• You can no longer just carry 99 of each in-battle consumable. Medicines and Life Stones cap at 50, while things as potent as Somas or Beads of Life cap at 5 or 10. Since excess copies of an item past the inventory cap are immediately discarded, the player is encouraged to use them more . This change also downplays the protagonist's Item Caddy role in long battles.
• Completing the Fairy Village line of EX Missions lets you talk to the Goblin in there and may prompt a few dialogue choices that let you nudge the protagonist towards Law or Chaos, so that you can adjust to alignment-exclusive content even after the alignment lock. In Redux , your alignment locks for good, so when you get to exploring Sector Horologium proper, no amount of pestering the Goblin will alter your standing.
• You can't access half of Grus prior to New Game Plus (and it's large and confusing enough to have been its own sector.)
• You also get some neat Sub Apps on an NG+: Red Carpet ( removes Random Encounters COMPLETELY), 7-Card Hand (lets you wield any 6 other Sub Apps regardless of their sizes), and New MegaTen (okay not really , it just congratulates you for buying the game or crashes without doing anything). You'll also be able to pick up some sweet accessories, such as a ring that repels physical and gun attacks, and a ring that repels all four standard magic attack elements.
• In Antlia, you can find a Boss Rush device that can't be used on your first playthrough. In Redux , a similar device appears in the Womb of Grief.
• Those willing to go the extra mile to challenge themselves unlock the Impossible difficulty in Redux , which among other things restricts the data preserved in a new cycle.
• Nietzsche Wannabe : Captain Jack, whose philosophy states that in the face of the imminent apocalypse, the only thing that still matters is money .
• No Hero Discount : Justified. There is a store on the exploration ship, but it's really more like a fabrication lab; they're using the demon money "Macca" as energy and the raw materials you find to craft things. So there's no "buy" or "sell" option, just "manufacture" and "disassemble."
• Not Completely Useless : Attack and Magic Mirrors are generally too much of a gamble to be reliable, since most demons have both physical and magic attacks. Attack Mirrors, however, significantly decrease the difficulty of Ubergestalt Gore , otherwise one of the hardest bosses in the game, since he has no magic attacks whatsoever.
• Some of the strike force are this way after you C4 a boulder blocking the way to a wrecked ship, as though this is evidence that the Schwarzwelt's denizens can't stand up to them. Cue Curb-Stomp Battle from an Orias legionary. A much weaker than usual Orias legionary (they usually start out at Lv.27. This one's at Lv.7).
• Happens several times as the team makes progress only to find more trouble, again and again. Eventually they get used to it, or go crazy.
• Nuke 'em : This is the Schwarzwelt Joint Project's response to the threat, with the excuse that it would further destabilize the already unstable particles of the Schwarzwelt and nullify it . As you might expect, it doesn't work... from the outside.
• Obliviously Evil : Many demons don't see anything wrong with killing humans, and some humans see no problem in exploiting the demons. See Playing with Syringes for an example.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome : Give the people of Earth some credit: one of the communiques from the Joint Project reveals that the Schwartzwelt crisis has resulted in at least temporary world peace, with every country banding together to fight the demons once the Project can't cover up their existence any longer.
• Why Jimenez went from "warrant officer" to "Schwarzwelt attack participant". Given the rest of his personality pre-Bugaboo, this isn't too surprising.
• Also Captain Jack and his men , who are so blatant about it that they actually make the demons look like nice people.
• Orchestral Bombing : The soundtrack is primarily orchestrated and heavily reminiscent of Space Opera scores, which stands out among the series as other games usually lean towards electronic rock, pop and/or metal. Ominous Latin Chanting is, of course, inevitable.
• Order Versus Chaos : An important part of the basic gameplay; demons are either Lawful, Chaotic, or Neutral and this affects how well they co-operate with you and each other. Order and Chaos have battled in many previous MegaTen games (there's even a Shout-Out to it in Digital Devil Saga 2 with the division of the Karma Society) but it's been a long time since it had such an overt impact on the gameplay. Given Ouroboros's condemning humans as "prisoners of matter" and "sinful clumps of matter", and her spin on Morax and Asura's claim that humans must be reborn as demons being that humans must be returned to disparate atoms and molecules drifting in space, there may also be a (Dead/Inert) Matter Versus (Living/Free) Energy/Spirit dynamic at work.
• Unlike most other games in the franchise however, this games goes into a bit of a detail into the nature of demons. They are composed of something akin to data, information essence which forms reality itself. This is illustrated by how blue squares are the form invisible demons and the demons in Grus after being affected by Zenelin's song take. Additionally, unlike the usual Deity of Mortal Creation practice for demons and gods, here they are formed from the will of the planet Earth itself, who is a sentient being containing the plane of information where demons are born from. Though human thoughts affect their creation, the demons do not need humans to exist like in other games, so they are free to Kill All Humans .
• Our Zombies Are Different : One hapless teammate named Norris gets turned into a shambling corpse in Bootes. He's "just" a demon-corrupted and possibly Delphinus Parasite-infected human who fights like an animal. A much more different zombie is the Ubergestalt, who's situationally benevolent and not rotten.
• Ouroboros : The boss of Sector E, representing the will of the planet . Ouroboros also classically represents infinity itself, as several demons point out to you.
• In Redux , this title is usurped by the New Chaos route. In addition to fighting Commander Gore , Mastema , and Pillar Zelenin as in the original Chaos route, you also have to fight Mem Aleph and Shekinah . The only major characters you get to avoid fighting are Jimenez and the final battle against Alex .
• Prophet Eyes : Features prominently in Redux where the Law alignment is involved. Ubergestalt Gore's eyes are confirmed to be this due to a more detailed portrait. The protagonist gains these when he's devoutly Law-aligned. On the Law route, the Red Sprite crew gains this after Zelenin brainwashes them with her song.
• Player Data Sharing : You can exchange demons with other players through passwords, although in order to summon a password-obtained demon, you still need to pay Macca as if they're a demon registered in your compendium, on top of having a level that matches or exceeds that demon's, preventing you from just using a level-99 demon right out of the gate.
• This gets turned around later when you find out what Captain Jack and his men are really doing in the Schwarzwelt. Let's just say that the demons are actually portrayed in a sympathetic light for once even as they curse humans for being mutilated, torn apart, and put back together. It actually tugs at your heart when you turn off the cultivation tank they're in and put them out of their misery.
• Pocket Dimension : The ship of Jack's Squad, the Lightning , is able to create one of these to serve as the squad's base of operations, and unlike the rest of the Schwarzwelt, the atmosphere in it is perfectly breathable by humans. The catch is that the power output necessary to generate such a location is so high that the Lightning cannot move or use its weapons in the meantime.
• Redux has a very subtle example related to its new endings. The new endings are triggered by completing the Womb of Grief, which is considered completed by defeating Maria in the Sixth Sphere. Once you beat her, you'll either have to do the new dungeon and True Final Boss or stay on the standard ending you get at the cost of the final Alex fight getting more difficult. If you don't defeat Maria, Alex fights you one last time just outside Mem Aleph's chamber and you're locked out of the new endings.
• Pokémon Speak : Bugaboo, though Jimenez tries to teach him language to some success.
• Post-Final Boss : In Redux , not beating Maria and going down Law or Neutral results in a standard fight with Alex after beating Mem Aleph. This fight is present in Chaos, but due to how that ending works, Alex is fought before that route's final boss.
• Power Born of Madness : The Chaos alignment is all over this. Asura condemns order and calm as the very things contributing to the Earth's decay and miseries by interdicting the growth of strength. This is important because he personally generated from his soul the Delphinus Parasite , which "polishes" humans into demon-like rage elementals. Translation: Eternal madness is the proper order of things in his eyes. Moloch (as in, Morax after undergoing rebirth and power boosting via Tiamat ) glories in the fact that his power is such that his sanity is fleeting. And if you choose to side with Chaos, after Jimenez deploys the Delphinus Parasite throughout the Red Sprite, he's joyous that everyone's been freed of sanity's oppression.
• Power Limiter / Power Nullifier : Alilat embodies a seal that is preventing the Demiurge from trying to reassemble himself.
• Powered Armor : The Demonica Suit.
• Psychological Torment Zone : Sector Grus. Imagine the first four Sectors' worst parts, merged together in a haze of illusion...
• Puny Earthlings : Humans this time around lack the unexplained magic powers they had in previous games and a lot of faceless soldiers get killed very easily throughout the course of the game. In addition, the Demonica suits are the things gaining levels and getting stronger, not the wearers themselves. With the exception of Captain Jack and his men. The soldiers and sergeants working for Jack have tons of HP, and Jack and Ryan are absurdly powerful in combat.
• Pure Is Not Good : As per Shin Megami Tensei tradition, this is why neither Law nor Chaos classifies as a good guy club. It doesn't help that each faction thinks "pure" and "good" are perfect synonyms. Another way to put it is that Law regards calm as the primary good that outweighs all others , including free will , and Chaos regards strength as the only real good. Strength that rejects anything that could possibly constrain it, at that. Anything less just stunts and corrupts existence.
• Rage Against the Heavens : As "Metatron" (actually a shard of God) reveals after you defeat Alilat, this already happened. Humans and God abandoned each other, and the mothers (who had been suppressed by God) decided to take their revenge. Hence why the piece of God who said this wants to be "whole" again (cue Demiurge EX Mission, where you fight another piece of God...)
• Rank Scales with Asskicking : The main character is the leader of the Strike Team, and the one who does most (if not all) of the fighting in the mission.
• Really 700 Years Old : Invoked by minor character Anthony to cover his attraction to a Moh Shuvuu, a "young-looking" female demon. Unfortunately, she seems to have the mindset of a child when you speak to her.
• In an interesting variation to the trope, later in the game you fight "upgraded" versions of previous bosses, who look very different but still have the same elemental weaknesses .
• In Redux , Alex makes a good four separate attempts on your life. And if you don't complete the Womb of Grief or refuse to help her change the future, she tries a fifth time.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning : Goes hand in hand with the Glowing Eyes of Doom for most demons. Most strikingly, however, the viewports in the Demonica's helmet (see illustration above) produce this effect quite effectively.
• Red Herring Twist : Throughout the game, there are various hints that the Joint Project may be up to something sinister, with the crew being aghast that the Project sent them with a gun that can brainwash others and an atomic bomb , as well as Jimenez's suspicions that the crew is not intended to return alive. These suspicions would seem to be confirmed after Eridanus when the Project attempts to destroy the Schwartzwelt with the team still inside it , but the matter is thereafter dropped, and the next time we see them, the Neutral ending , they're completely cordial and genuinely happy that you managed to survive.
• Red Shirt Army : Most of the crews of the four ships wind up dying horribly really quickly, though this peters out as time goes on; the toughest (or luckiest) survive until the end in a grim but rapid example of natural selection. The game is also very vague on exactly how much crew complement you have at any given time, but it's likely that each ship was actually overstaffed with redundant crew just to be safe.
• In addition to the above, Mastema can only be fought on the Chaos route.
• Things get a little complex with the additional content on its 3DS remake Strange Journey Redux , as the final fight with Alex will change depending on whether you chose to finish the extra Bonus Dungeon and whether you reject or accept her plans for a new world. Finishing the Womb of Grief before reaching the depths of the final sector, and then rejecting her ideas will trigger one final fight where she invokes the power of her stolen Fruit and calls a couple of exclusive demons to her side. Otherwise, she just fights alone.
• Ma ia Ouroboros, Tia ma t, and Ma ya all share the letters MA, which is an Indo-European root for mother. Mem Aleph refers to the two Phoenician letters that would eventually become MA.
• MA is also the name of Mem Aleph's most devastating attack .
• Funnily enough, she temporarily disguises herself with some strange, large kind of headgear, taking on the appearance of Kin ma mon.
• Rule of Three : Each of the three factions is, itself, led by three primary representatives for you to join or antagonize: a governing / driving entity (the World Council for Neutral, the Three Wise Men for Law, Mem Aleph for Chaos), an ideological sponsor (Commander Gore, Mastema, Lucifer), and an executor (Arthur, Zelenin, Jimenez), who ultimately ends up as your partner in your chosen path.
• Running Gag : Anthony falling in love with demons. And causing all sound to stop as a result.
• Sarcasm Mode : The Compendium profile for the Zhu Tun She: A monster snake said to be sighted around the Song dynasty. It is about three feet long, has four legs, is covered in fur, and squeals like a pig. Because there is no animal that remotely fits the description, it is believed to be a completely unknown creature.
• Science Is Bad : Averted , subverted , inverted , and kicked until it runs screaming. With the smörgåsbord of human sins that is the Schwartzwelt, technology is a major exception, and indeed, many demons seem to like it. In less common instances, demons will complain that science allows humans to play god, but such complaints seem to be directed to the humans using the technology , not technology itself.
• Sealed Evil in a Can : The Demiurge. At the end, you can spring him so he can join you (only in the Law path), or shove him back in there .
• And with access to Gate Search E, you can find a forma early in Sector Grus that forms Unlock E, before you even have Unlock C that shows up much later in the sector.
• In general, being diligent with completing sidequests, and even clearing them at levels lower than they expect you to be at, lets you gain more advanced Sub-Apps before their weaker forms are available through the plot.
• Serial Romeo : Anthony.
• Seven Deadly Sins : It's not immediately obvious or pointed out, but the different areas of the Schwarzwelt follow this theme (it should click by the time you get the demonic shopping mall, though).
• The game itself could be considered a Whole-Plot Reference to The Thing , considering that you have to fight an otherworldly force at the South Pole.
• Among the guns available to you is the Reaper Colt .
• Some demons have an ability called "Bites the Dust" that has a chance of giving the bomb status to any party member, which will K-O them if hit again by a physical attack. The fact that "Strange Journey" is literally a synonym for "Bizarre Adventure" is likely more than just a coincidence.
• Not to mention TRUSTIN SCALY . Remember that the second line is all dashes .
• Almost as old, almost as classic, it's HELP ME !
• Also, MTDQD serves much the same function as its counterpart.
• Aliens reference: One of the strike team members you are attempting to save in a certain EX mission shouts something along the lines of "Game over, man!"
• Alternatively, Captain Jack and his lieutenant Ryan could be a reference to Tom Clancy's character Jack Ryan .
• Speaking of Doctor Who , the DEMONICA armor looks uncannily similar to a Cyberman, particularly the 1980s incarnation with its segmented lower jaw and large rifle with prominent carrying strap, as well as the antannae on the sides of the helmet.
• The demon Asherah can only be created by a special fusion of Asura and Valkyrie; a feud between Asura and a Valkyrie was part of an important Side Quest in Lost Kingdoms II .
• A possible one to Claymore . One of Demon Jimenez's racial names is "Awake." "Awakened Beings" in Claymore are humans mixed with demons who are insanely dangerous and powerful.
• Irving, after upgrading your Demonica for the first time, says "Got 'r done!", possibly as homage to Larry the Cable Guy .
• The first rare forma you find, Lemegetonite , is named after one of the alternate names for the Ars Goetia , Lemegeton.
• ...In addition to being the name of a marksman from two other Atlus series .
• In the room where you fights Horkos, you can see among the pile of various objects behind him a TV with a yellow screen .
• The room that the Three Wise Men pull the Protagonist into, in order to discuss their plans, is designed after the "hotel room" from David Bowman's journey into the monolith .
• "Reason's Start"(originally 始祖の理, Shizo no Kotowari , "Founder/Originator's Reason") also refers to Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne , where a Reason ( kotowari ) is a philosophy of creation proposed by a god, which the Demifiend must support, in order to bring forth a new world after the dissolution of ours. Throughout Strange Journey , the goal of Mother Goddess and creator of mankind, Mem Aleph, is to usher in a new world under her philosophy.
• Mastema's pleasure that Zelenin can say "shibboleth" properly is a reference to events mentioned in The Book of Judges where the fleeing Ephraimites pretending to be from another group were forced to say the word. If they couldn't they were killed.
• One of the Rare Forma needed to progress is Ice-10 .
• The expedition's ships heavily inspired by the all-terrain vehicle design of Damnation Alley 's Landmasters and the Demon Hunter Cars from Devilman .
• The command staff have yellow stripes on their Demonicas' shoulders, the scientists have blue stripes, and the soldiers have red stripes. Sounds like the color scheme for a certain famous science fiction show.
• In the US manual, the protagonist is given the placeholder names Langdon Alger and Lance Murdock .
• The Cursed Sarai is described as "The sword of Anubis that drives people mad", referring the antagonistic evil sword from Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders .
• Shown Their Work : A lot of EX Missions, demon designs, and even item drops pay very close attention to the demon's particular background, from the Lady of the Lake, to Cú Chulainn, to Tlaloc's appearance, to Hariti's culinary tastes. Par for the course with Atlus.
• Side Quest : The EX Missions. They make up a lot of the game's content, and some are necessary to make certain demons-even certain types of demons-available for fusion. The superboss is also confronted in one of these.
• Signature Move : Redux changes the innate skill set of fusable bosses such that you can use their unique moves in your party. These include Morax's Gehenna, Mithras's Waking Dream, and Asura's Black Flame. These skills cannot be passed through fusion and will not appear on a D-Source.
• Snowy Screen of Death : Since you (as the Protagonist) are seeing out through the Demonica's display, death in combat yields this.
• Just as you've installed new and exciting Main App upgrades to discover hidden doors, open locked portals, or visualize dark zones, you'll run into doors and zones that make them obsolete and require additional upgrades. Sometimes within minutes.
• One particular door in the top floor of Sector Carina requires Unlock C to open. After gaining that App near the end of Sector Grus, you open the door only to find a short corridor that leads to another locked door. This door requires Unlock D , which isn't obtained until the alignment lock shortly after, thus combining this trope with a literal Double Unlock .
• The Chaos-aligned demons, most notably Asura, believe that an ideal world is one of constant conflict where only the strong can survive. In Redux , this is brutally deconstructed by Alex, who explains that such a world has led to her becoming the last human alive because a world fueled entirely by social Darwinism will inevitably end with everyone wiping each other out .
• It should be noted that not only do Chaos aligned characters show Social Darwinist tendencies, but also Law aligned characters. After the defeat of Mother Maya, the Three Wise Men mention that the weak-willed will be purged and only the strong-willed will be allowed to live in the new world. At least in Strange Journey, being a Social Darwinist isn't exclusive to Chaos. The main difference is whether the strength is physical or mental.
• Some Kind of Force Field : The last wrench the Schwarzwelt tosses in the Protagonist's path, after the Dark Zones, conveyor corridors, dimensional pocket spaces, warp tiles, and pathways in the air , is a single-room maze filled with invisible walls that become briefly visible when bumping directly into them .
• Southern-Fried Genius : Irving.
• Spoiler Opening : The opening video of Redux shows Zelenin and Jimenez transforming into their demi-divine and demi-demon forms, respectively . If you have a good eye you can also see a spinning Shekinah, the final boss of all of the new routes .
• Stable Time Loop : Happens in one particular Extra Mission. In an earlier battle requested by the Disir, you'd have been killed by Yggdrasil if it weren't for the intervention of someone more powerful: Yourself from much later on in the game, sent back by the Norns who used to be the Disir who made the request.
• Sleep: Affected combatant can't take actions but regains HP and MP at the end of each turn. They take increased damage on the next hit, but also wake up in the process.
• Poison: Affected combatant takes damage after executing their action.
• Strain: Affected combatant loses MP after executing their action.
• Fear: Affected combatant may lose their action for the turn or even run from battle.
• Paralysis: Affected combatant may lose their action for the turn and acts later than other combatants in battle.
• Stone : Affected combatant can't take actions. If all surviving combatants on one side are petrified, combat ends.
• Mute: Affected combatant can't use skills. Muted enemies can still attempt to use skills and end up doing nothing for their turn when it happens.
• Charm: Affected combatant is uncontrollable and will randomly attack themselves or their allies.
• Bomb : Affected combatant takes extra physical or gun damage. If struck enough times, they explode, damaging their allies.
• Rage : Affected combatant has increased attack but is uncontrollable, and will randomly attack other combatants, friend or foe. Unlike the other ailments, there is nothing you can do to resist or prevent its infliction.
• The Stoic : The main character, to the point where he's actually complemented for not being fazed by anything... and people get shocked in the Chaos route after Gore is killed "Did... did you just laugh?"
• Stupidity-Inducing Attack : Zelenin's Song, in addition to its more overt brainwashing vibes.
• Sudden Soundtrack Stop : The music in this game never stops playing, except for one moment. In one sidequest, one of the Red Sprite's crew members confesses that he has fallen in love with the demon. To cover up for the Heroic Mime protagonist's apparent silent reaction, the music goes quiet in his stead. "Hey, what's up with the sudden silence?"
• Super Prototype : The Lightning, rebuilt with technology (and weaponry) far more advanced than the Red Sprite and its brethren.
• On the second playthrough, you get to punch out the Gnostic Demiurge, a level 99 kick in the nuts .
• In Redux , several more are added, but one EX Mission presents the successor to the Demiurge on a second playthrough. Or rather, successors ; there are no less than four ultimate bosses stronger than the Demiurge: Nebiros, Belial, Lucifuge, and Beelzebub, all of whom are at Level 99 and guard the new ultimate equipment. Their stats are upwards of twenty points higher than the Demiurge and even the new True Final Boss , and generally require either using DLC or days of dedicated Incense grinding to bring your team up to snuff. Beating them all leads to unlocking Magellan, a sub-app that automatically maps everything, but doesn't count unexplored territory as travelled.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes : Jimenez gains them when he is fused with Bugaboo. In Redux , the protagonist gains them when he's devoutly chaos-aligned, and so does the rest of the Red Sprite crew when Jimenez infects them with the Delphinus Parasite on the Chaos route.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity : Uncharacteristically for a mainline MegaTen game, you'll find Terminals (Save Points that can teleport you back to home base) relatively near Sector bosses, and often with a Fountain of Healing nearby. The Demonica is even generous enough to advise you when you're getting near "a powerful demon," even those that lay hidden in ambush in Sector F, who are nice enough to camp out right after Terminals and Fountains .
• Sword and Gun : The Protagonist starts off with a standard-issue combat knife and machine-gun, then goes off from there.
• In Sector Grus, a demon guards the way to the sector boss, and asks for you to exterminate Jack's squad after they had already been pacified, so they get their deserved retribution for their demon experimentation. Zelenin steps in and suggests that you use her song to make the demons submit so that they open the path for you. Choosing either will heavily influence your karma meter in favour of Chaos or Law respectively. But a third option exists — fight the demon yourself.
• This is essentially the point of the new endings in Redux , as you are given the opportunity to convince Zelenin and Jimenez that they don't have to blindly follow their gods and forsake humanity in service of their goals. This results in new Law and Chaos endings where humanity isn't explicitly screwed over in the creation of the new worlds .
• Techno Babble : In the form of both Reverse Polarity and Hand Waving .
• The various Schwarzwelt sectors are code-named from A to H as the Red Sprite navigates them. In turn, each initial denotes the name of a constellation , like A ntlia, B oötes, C arina, D elphinus, and so on. And if that wasn't enough, the sectors that occur after you locate the Vanishing Point ( F ornax, G rus, and H orologium) are all the names of constellations in the southern hemisphere, while the first four sectors' titular constellations are located in the northern hemisphere !
• The Red Sprite, the Blue Jet, the Elve, the Gigantic, and the Lightning are all named after atmospheric phenomena.
• The Mother Goddesses which rule Sectors E, F, G, and H all have the syllable "ma" in their names: Ma ia Ouroboros, Tia ma t, Ma ya, and M em A leph . The proto-Indoeuropean root ma means breast and is the origin of the word "mother" in modern languages. Also, it isn't just Mem Aleph's initials (and the name of her MA attack) but Mem , the Phoenician for water note  the origin of life , is itself also derived from proto-Semitic ma . At one point, even A ma terasu, the Japanese Sun goddess and often considered a Mother Goddess as well, wonders why she felt drawn to the Schwarzwelt, even first appearing in an alternate guise called Kin ma mon .
• There Was a Door : The resurrected Tyrants in Sector Fornax like to burst into scene by plowing through walls. Which would be quite fearsome and intimidating if the Demonica hadn't warned you about their presence minutes beforehand .
• Those Two Guys : Irving and Chen, your inventors in the laboratory. Well, Chen is technically a woman, but the trope is otherwise played straight.
• Time-Limit Boss : Take too long to defeat the new ultimate superbosses in Redux , and they start spamming an incredibly strong Almighty attack.
• Too Awesome to Use : D-Sources, gained after fully analyzing a demon, contain very useful skills and become very handy in doing things like covering weaknesses. While they are automatically given the first time a player finishes analyzing the demon in a playthrough, it can take an absurd amount of luck or grinding to get another copy once the D-Source is used. It's common for players to sit on unused D-Sources for most of the game, only to find that they don't carry over in a New Game Plus .
• Tragic Monster : Norris succumbs to temptation and gets drawn into Mithras's palace. He gets subject to human experimentation, and when you finally get to rescue him, you have to fight him and put him out of his misery.
• Trick Boss : Forneus in Redux . You've beaten the boss of the Fourth Sphere, all's good... and then Alex and George realize that you're now in the situation they were in when Alex beat Amon and attack. For the first and possibly only time, you are required to take down all of Alex's health, and she starts using all of her gimmicks.
• True Final Boss : Shekinah in all the new routes of Redux .
• Unexplained Recovery : Commander Gore dies very early in the game, and his body preserved in the Red Sprite. By the time the crew reaches Delphinus, his body goes missing, and the protagonist finds the restored Gore wandering through the later sectors. Gore eventually reunites with the crew as the representative of the Neutral route, and even then, how he was restored is never fully explained.
• Ungrateful Bastard : One of the most annoying things that can happen to you in the game - a demon takes your offerings in negotiation when you ask it to join you, looks at you again, and then changes its mind and leaves! This only happens with Law or Chaos demons that you don't share alignments with, and the "Tea Amity" Sub App will make them reconsider and join you with perfect reliability.
• Urban Segregation : Sector Bootes takes place in a shabby red-light district inhabited by demons, but the primary landmark of the sector is Mithras's Palace. The palace itself towers over the other buildings in the city, and is full of lavish decor and beautiful feminine figures in the background, though several levels are actually torture chambers where Mithras carries out his experiments. In the game's story, there are a string of sex murders going on in Tokyo as humanity grows more and more depraved.
• Lost Word is a Random Effect Spell that can heal, buff, or debuff either all enemies or all allies. While it costs about half as much as its equivalent skills (20MP compared to 35MP for Mediarahan or 50MP for Luster Candy or Debilitate), it's much more efficient to use the skills that don't have a chance of giving a boon to the enemy.
• Judgment, Holy Wrath, and Sea of Chaos are Almighty spells that do extra damage to targets of specific alignments. They also hit your party along with all enemies . With friendly fire being as unwelcome as it is, there's no surprise why very few use these skills.
• Laplace Curse is a passive that applies a free Debilitate to all enemies that you've fully analyzed at the start of battle. However, if you've fully analyzed an enemy, chances are you've already fought and defeated it enough times that you don't need the free Debilitate to beat it. (Yes, this includes the Fiends .) This skill also won't work on bosses as you don't get any analysis level on them, even if you've already fully analyzed their playable versions.
• Horn of Fate casts either Mahamaon or Mamudoon, so in exchange for compressing both skills into one slot, you have a 50-50 chance of not hitting with the element you want. Also, there's a 10% chance of it accidentally affecting your team — a self-inflicted Total Party Kill is most unpleasant, even if the caster is largely resistant to it.
• Verbal Tic : Horkos bellows " BUONO " whether things are going well for him (gorging himself) or not (getting shot with the Horkos Buster).
• Redux adds the Upper Layer of the Empyrean Ascent, which leads to the Three Wise Men and Shekinah on the Lower Layer. Said Lower Layer notably doesn't count, as aside from the hallway leading to Shekinah, the entire area is blocked off until New Game Plus as the bonus dungeon.
• Video Game Caring Potential : You can stop Alice from torturing and eating the Hare of Inaba, leading to an instant battle. If you do so, the Hare thanks you with a Bead Chain.
• Villainous Breakdown : Mithras when you confront him in his palace, and Mastema in the Chaos path. The latter breaks down just as hard in the New Law path in Redux .
• Villainous Glutton : Horkos. Dear god, Horkos. His entire megamall-themed stage appears to be one giant assembly line designed to feed him, and immediately before you encounter him the first time he manages to force down one of the expedition's lost ships. Pretty much the entirety of his area's quest after that point is to find a way to break through that ship's defense shields, which now surround Horkos and make him invulnerable.
• Wake-Up Call Boss : Orias will teach you that yes, you do need to plan your Demon Co-Ops if you want to deal any significant damage to bosses. The fact that by then you are restricted to three demons (Pixie and any two of Knocker, Tangata Manu, and Angel) and your basic equipment makes it all the more unforgiving.
• While demons can be revived as often as needed with revival beads, resurrecting dead humans seems to be impossible by conventional means , as quite a lot of human characters bite it over the course of the story.
• This can be averted in Redux by developing the "March to Death" Sub-App, which allows demons to continue fighting if the player is killed or petrified. Naturally, on the Impossible difficulty, this app is unavailable.
• The boss following the Law and Chaos alignment locks, Commander Gore , exploits this with an attack that targets you, and only you , and does enough damage to guarantee a kill if you're not guarding and don't have physical-resistant gear.
• We Need a Distraction : When the Protagonist needs to infiltrate Mithras's Palace to rescue Zelenin, the rest of the Strike Force mount a frontal assault to distract Mithras's forces. This disables random encounters in the building until you reach Zelenin.
• Wham Episode : In the final sector, Gore, having been reborn as an Ubergestalt, reunites with the Red Sprite, where the most alignment-important scene in the game takes place. If you are devoutly Law or Chaos, or answer Gore's questions in a non-Neutral manner, Gore deems you irredeemable and fights you to the death . Following his death, the Command Room is shown to be in shambles, Arthur suffers a terminal error in his personality matrix that forces him to self-terminate , and whichever sidekick you're aligned with invades the Red Sprite and brainwashes everyone into worshippers of God or beastly-minded savages.
• The Wild Hunt : It's a demon of the Night race here.
• The Window or the Stairs : In Mithras's palace, there are several areas where you have three hallways to choose from. On the floor in front of them, you find a message saying, "Take the long road". The shorter hallways either have a trapdoor that will drop you to the floor below or are lined with damaging floors.
• The World Is Not Ready : In the Neutral Ending, you wind up having to erase most of the data on demons and Forma that you found in the Schwartzwelt because, as amazing as the discoveries were, they would just as easily issue forth a horrible demon-based arms race in the world. Considering the plot of Devil Survivor , where people able to summon demons start to turn on each other like crazy after only a week, you may see the point of this.
• World-Wrecking Wave : The result of the Schwarzwelt swelling up unchecked, as the wall of plasma races across the surface of the world, annihilating everything and everyone on it.
• You Bastard! : Between Gore doing a complete 180 and turning you, to Arthur's gut wrenching death , and Jimenez/Zelenin turning the remaining crew into gibbering manchildren/soulless drones while they tearfully beg him/her to stop, it's really hard not to feel guilty for taking either the Chaos or Law path.
• All demons show up as static in the Demonica's display until you've encountered them, or fused them, at least once, and until then you can't even understand their speech. Taken even further with Mem Aleph , an entity so unbelievably powerful that you can't even try to analyze it until a traveler of the Schwarzwelt grants you with the "brilliance" to see it .
• Also expressed in so many words in an early EX Mission: Something nearly imperceptible happened to (main character) !
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle! : The Red Sprite finds the Vanishing Point atop Sector E, and is about to leave the Schwarzwelt, when their plans... hit a snag, so to say.

> The Main Mission Visit Unabridged Version has been completed.

Alternative Title(s): Strange Journey

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