Shin Megami Tensei/Headscratchers

• Why do you still need to use Magnetite to maintain demons in Shin Megami Tensei If...? The rationale for it in games where it's either used for the initial summoning of demons or maintaining summoned demons is that the Human World is innately inimical to demons, and they require Magnetite -- a fluid from their native Makai -- to maintain themselves... but If... takes place entirely in Makai. I apologize if there's an in-game Hand Wave, but it has yet to be translated, so I wouldn't know.
  • I assumed that Magnetite is more or less (based on what I've seen in Nocturne) "demon food" and that demons need it to survive, as well as form a body in the physical world.
  • Probably an oversight. Also, since the game engine is more or less the same one from Shin Megami Tensei II, it probably wasn't removed because of either laziness on the programming team, or because having to micromanage Magnetite consumption kept the challenge rating of the gameplay high.
• What happened to Aya Nishitani? She wrote the original three Digital Devil Story novels, was involved with the production of the OAV, presumably was involved in negotiating the rights to the Megami Tensei video games...and then she just disappears off into the black hole of history. There's no listing of her later works, no indication of where she came from--if not for her given name, we wouldn't even know that Aya Nishitani is a she.
  • Actually, according to what little info I could find, I think s/he wrote a sequel series called New Digital Devil Story...which somehow manages to be even more obscure than the original series.
    • It also turns out that Aya Nishitani is a guy.
      • I wish we could have evidence of that. As for the topic, Nishitani's website seems to still be up if that's any indication.
        • There's a photo of him here; http://complete.electrolit.net/2010/09/24/megami-tensei-novel-turned-game-turned-novel/
• The Mansion of Heretics. Nobody seems to explain why they exist outside the first game on the Famicom.
  • Well, all the other Megaten games are alternate universes; In Nocturne it is mentioned that the series is set in a multiverse. Strange Journey and Devil Survivor use a form of it but it is technology rather than a ceremony/building.
    • What I mean was, nobody seems to explain where they came from. The first game and Nocturne are justified in that they are not of this world but they exist in say the first SMT without introduction or why they work for you for free. Come on, Atlus. At least tell the player that they are some sort of secret organization who discovered devil fusion or something.
    • The Raidou Kuzunoha Devil Summoner games have "Dr. Victor" who handles demon fusion through SCIENCE!, and may very well be the predecessor to the group in mainline Megaten. That or they work like the Velvet Room does in Persona and they just appear wherever demons are to be found, a natural side-effect of the demonic world crossing into the mortal realm.
• Why is Yama a part of the Chaos faction in Shin Megami Tensei I? Isn't he a demon whose entire shtick (ingame and his source mythos) being the demon judge of the underworld, and isn't LAW what a judge decides? However, in Devil Survivor, he's allied with a rather Law Hero inclined character, which is somewhat inconsistent, so is this just Early Installment Weirdness?
  • Early Installment Weirdness; Yama class demons are called Night later on in the series.
    • He's referring to the actual demon King Yama, not the Yama class of demons that include Lilim, Lilith, etc.
  • I believe they tried to explain it in the game but I don't remember how. It's suppose to demonstrate the irony of a judge being on the side of Chaos.
  • Yama is a Deity in Devil Survivor while he's a Tenma in the earlier games. Which is why he can work with someone like Keisuke. A demons race can determine their alignment and who they side with. There are exceptions however such as Echidna who is Dark-Law but is on the side of Chaos in Shin Megami Tensei I.
• Why the hell are the Seraphim so damned loyal to YHVH, especially in Shin Megami Tensei II and Digital Devil Saga? In the former, He banished them from heaven and basically abandoned them, and in the latter, He turned them into flesh eating abominations! Is this just My Master, Right or Wrong gone to its utterly psychotic conclusion?
  • Probably trying to atone for their failings in Shin Megami Tensei. They were defeated by the Protagonist in the Neutral/Chaos Routes. And also due to the fact they created artificial humans in hope for a savior, which went against YHVH's will.
  • While Brahman is called God in Digital Devil Saga there really isn't anything that suggests that he is a part of the Great Will like YHVH and Kagutsuchi are. So how they ended up as flesh eating abominations is a mystery.
  • Actually it is somewhat intimated by the game that those angels are not entirely sane. In the Japanese text it's more clearly stated that they were captured by the Karma Society, went fairly crazy and then somehow got out. Why they're remembering Shin Megami Tensei II it's not entirely sure. What is sure is that they have zero relation to Brahman. You're not really fighting "God" per se as I can understand. YHVH as far as I can understand from the Shin Megami Tensei games seems to actually be an immensely powerful spiritual entity. He can remake reality as he sees fit and create life. But Brahman seems to be the ultimate expression of life - he's not remaking the world during DDS, he's trying to wipe out the everything. If Brahman hadn't of been stopped everything including YHVH would probably be dead.
    • Schrodinger states after the bonus boss battle against Satan that the God Satan serves is different form the one in Digital Devil Saga. Not to mention the characters themselves call Brahman God.