Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne/Headscratchers

• In game you have a compass with a "north". How does the vortex world have a "north"?
  • In our world, North and South correspond (roughly) to the Earth's magnetic poles. While the Vortex World may be inside-out, it could also have some sort of geological feature by which navigation is made easier. In all likelihood, however, it wouldn't be the same as the cardinal directions we know now and the characters knowing how to navigate would be a case of Informed Ability or Gameplay and Story Segregation.
  • Even the souls in the game acknowledge "south" and "north" are mere relative terms in the Vortex World.
• So...if YHVH is the definitive "God" of the SMT verse, what the hell is Kagutsuchi?
  • Also God. YHVH and Kagutsuchi are two aspects of the "Great Will", YHVH being the authoritive persona, and Kagutsuchi being the creative power.
• Why does the bottom level of hell look like a theatre ?
  • Because imagination is of the devil.
• What's the deal with the strange names for the abilities in this game? It makes choosing demons far harder than it should be. You effectively have to learn a new language. By the end of the game I was conversant in terms like 'Mazandyne', 'Rakukaja', 'Megidolaon' and so on. How did this happen? Are the names in Japanese, or some other language? If they'd just give the abilities sensible names like 'Lightning', 'Strength boost' or 'Dispel', for instance, it would make the game an awful lot less obscure.
  • The series mostly uses Sanskrit and Greek words for spells.
    • This actually was used in Revelations: Persona as part of the Americanitis. That plan fell through, so that's way you need to know Greek or Sanskrit, have prior knowledge of the series, or use the descriptions.
• So, Hijiri is stuck in a loop of death and rebirth, right? So why isn't he seen after Isamu kills him again?
  • He is stuck in a loop, yes, but part of the curse is that he is doomed to be reborn on other worlds, meaning that he has to witness the desctruction of multiple worlds without being able to do anything about it.
• If you use Lilith in battle,she will say something during her spells that is unclear to this Troper. I'm curious about what she says.
  • Shin Megami Tensei is full of nonsense words. Go and ask someone who's good at understanding their lyrics.
• Why is matador considered so hard? I agree that he can easily beat you the first time you battle him ,but so will every boss in this game and any rpg player worth his salt will devise an strategy to easily beat him by spamming agility depleting attacks ans using a wind nulling magatama and wind resistant demons.So why does he have this reputation?
  • For starters, he has a move called Red Capote which makes his agility/accuracy skyrocket, he can use Dekunda to nullify any buffs you put on him (such as Sukunda). And when he Turns Red, he'll use Taunt to drastically lower your defense (and gain some SP back) before following up with Andalucia - a multi-hit attack that hits like a truck at that point in the game. Like you said, you can make it a lot easier by equipping a Null Force Magatama and recruiting some demons who are Null/Resistant to Force, but it's essentially a beginner's trap. Oh and you can't attempt to run away and prepare yourself, unlike the majority of the other Fiend battles.
    • Actually, Dante's Provoke skill recovers MP, par on the course considering the series he's from. The Taunt skill does not have this feature regardless of the demon that has it.
• Is the Minister at the Cathedral of Shadows a human?
  • If he's anything like his previous incarnations (especially the very first one), maybe? If he's like the one in Digital Devil Story, he would be human but a human from Makai if that makes sense.
• This is a minor one, but why is Loki holding a 1000 Yen Bill in his room? The world has come to an end and the new world's currency is Macca, so a 1000 Yen Bill is essentially worthless except as something to collect, but you really get the impression that no one in the Vortex World shares the Collector Manikin's fascination with humans. Why would Loki keep something with absolutely no value?
  • Well, in Shin Megami Tensei, there's a guy who will buy "old world" money for Macca. So I'd say collector's value.
• Did buildings just spring up overnight in the new world or did somebody actually build them? Because you lived through the end of the world and woke up in one that had structures in it that were definitely not present in the old one. You'd think there wouldn't be enough time to build all those buildings in the apparently short time you were asleep.