Punching Lucifer in the Face - The Shin Megami Tensei 1 Let's Play

[Chocobo]

For those who don't know about *Shin Megami Tensei, it's part of the Megami Tensei franchise. Megami Tensei began in the 80s, as a trilogy of novels titled "Digital Devil Saga: Megami Tensei." Namco, for whatever reason, thought that adapting these novels into Famicom games would be a hip idea, so they did. They made Megami Tensei I and Megami Tensei II for Famicom. When the Super Famicom rolled about, they decided to bring the series to Super Famicom, under the name Shin Megami Tensei. Shin Megami Tensei I is the first game in the series to be (fully) translated, so I'll begin with that.

Without spoiling much, Shin Megami Tensei I takes place in a world that has been invaded by **demons, and you, the protagonist, receives a Demon Summoning Program to aid him in saving the world. Compared to other RPGs of the time, such as Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, this game takes place in modernish times. So not only can the characters use swords and magic, they can also use GUNS! (ooh)

The other big draw of this game is the fact that there are several routes and multiple endings, depending on the choices make in this game. There are 3 endings: Lawful Ending, Neutral Ending, and Chaotic Ending. This is where you all come in. Whenever I come across a decision, I want you all to vote on what decision I should make, so this is basically an interactive Let's Play. Note, I will also be posting this on another forum, so I will also be receiving votes and suggestions from there too. Though, said forum is very small, so I'm sure the majority here is what I'll go with.


*Megami Tensei translates to "Reincarnation of the Goddess", which refers to the plot of the first novel. The Shin part means "True", but in Japan, they tend to use "Shin" as us Americans use "Super", to make the title look cooler

**In this game, "demons" do not just refer to the minions of Satan, but they refer to basically any mythological creature. In this series, fairies, imps, and even angels are considered demons.

Episodes
Episode 1: Character Creation (First Post)
Episode 2: The Search for Coffee (First Post)
Episode 3: Miscarriage of Justice
Episode 4: Cripples Are Assholes!
Episode 5: Life is Ruff
Episode 6: I'm So Smart I Completely Ignored a Very Important Mechanic


EPISODE 1: CHARACTER CREATION



The opening of the game has several blink-and-you-miss-it flashes of events later on in the game, and gratuitous greek everywhere. After that, your character appears to be having a bad acid trip of sorts, as he wanders around in a field of wavy redness, and he eventually encounters a glowing floating head.



Yeah, no more LSD for him.



"Identify thyself" What? Did they hire rejects from the Dragon Warrior localization team for this game? Anywho, suggest me cool names for the main character!


I'm going to ahead and name the characters. Note: photobucket randomly deleted some of my pics, so there will be some gaps here and there for this.





"So yeah man, if you want the good ending you'll have to take the Neutral path."

After the conversation with the creepy floating head, you continue through your acid trip. Eventually, you see this:



I guess they ran out of animals to sacrifice.




Remember all that LSD we did the previous night...?


You tried banging that chick, remember?


Only because I wanted her for myself.





After meeting Curly, they continue onward to their drug-induced adventure, and they meet...




The police are here bro, time to give it up.


Wet dreams are the best dreams.




After meeting him, you three continue on through the weirdo dream, and you go through a door, then you see....


Thank you game, if it wasn't for your descriptive text, I would not have guessed that was a naked lady bathing in a pond.


Just a group of gangbangers.


Shit! That's the chick from last night!



There's our love interest.


Until the dream stops foreshadowing things, mom!

EPISODE 2: THE SEARCH FOR COFFEE



YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND ME I WAS A DRAGON IN MY PREVIOUS LIFE

You awake in your room, as your mother bitches you out. Time to do what every virgin would do and get on the computer to check Nuklear Power!



BULK UP YOUR PENIS TODAY!



As per usual in video games.


It then turns out that the demons...are really us! DIRECTED BY M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN

You then download a program that lets you summon and communicate demons. You're supposed to fight the demons overunning the Earth...with more demons. It's basically Pokemon. Sort of. Kind of. Not really.


SHUT UP MOM I'M ADVANCING THE PLOT

If you check your computer again, you'll download a manual for the Demon Summoning Program. I'll tell you more about it once combat actually happens.



Yeah, drug crashes do that for you.




Alright! Let's buy a Nintendo!

Your mom then tells you not to waste all of your money on hookers and blow (or something like that). She then asks you to go to the Cafe and buy coffee for her, as she is clearly too lazy to do it herself. Plus, you need a reason to advance the plot anyway. As you walk around the house, you can either leave or talk to your dog.





After talking with your canine sidekick, you must leave the house. The map screen isn't too spectacular...



That long yellow tube is where you're supposed to go. When you get in there, you arrive at the district. There are plenty of things to do here, such as buy weapons, armor, drugs (say no kids!), and talk to random NPCs.





HI I AM UNSUBTLY TELLING YOU TO CHECK YOUR COMPUTER

The main reason why you're here is to check the cafe.


Alright! Fanservice!

In the Cafe, you meet Yuriko again, and she reminds you that she's your eternal partner (yandere). Anyway, you go through a door, and the cafe keeper says he'll send coffee to your house for free! What to do next?


Well, there's a clue.

On the way out, if you go into a room, you'll meet a group of thugs, one of them named "Ozawa". He politely tells you to fuck off. Douchebag. Just like Yuriko, their screencaps got deleted too. Anyway, you may of noticed on the map screen, there's a house under yours. That's the house of the neighbor. Their daughter is gone, so no H-scene, but you can talk to the father! As you get home...



I couldn't be gone for that long, it doesn't take long to buy friggin coffee.


I tried to get active with the neighbor's daughter, but NOOOOO




Sounds like a plot hook.

So, after going to bed, you go through another acid trip.





Either this is the heroine or this is a yandere. Maybe both...




Apparently, one of the requirements for this demon is to be shirtles.




DECIDE HER FATE!

[Sage Harpuia]

Since you're going for the "punch Lucifer in the face" thing. I'll pick... hm... depends if you get to do the deed in the neutral path... If so I'll choose neutral. If not, lawful. This may or may not induced indirect spoilers.
Edit: So.. save her.

[Chocobo]

Actually, the "Punching Lucifer in the Face" thing was just something to spice up the title. I'm completely open to any path. I know that saving the girl will give you Lawful points, so I assume you want me to save her?

Oh wow, either I missed that or you edited your post. So, it's 3-2 in saving the girl's favor.

[Bifrost]

SAVE THE GIRL.

Hey, we can always make up for the lawful points we get later, it's no big deal. *aiming for balance aka the "not as much of an asshat" path because she vaguely remembers punching out YHVH in this if you do that*

[Ravashak]

Don't save her, go Chaos 'cause Law are far worse jerks

[Chocobo]

EPISODE 3: MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE

So, last episode, you guys decided to save the girl. Let's see how that works out!


Actually, there are two guys with bigass swords.




Uh, sure, yeah. Let's go with that. Afterwards, you get to name the chick.



What, are you not allowed to say her name? Is it like Lord Moldybu


Really? Looked like they were going to take you out for tea.




You then get to distribute her stat points.


Oh damn, another foreshadowing dream.



Well baby, you're naked, I'm naked. Why don't we "see" each other right now? Larry and Curly can just do each other.

After that, your mom bitches you out, and you wake up. Time to check the computer!


Alright! My torrents are done!

The file is the Auto-Mapping tool, which lets you check the map on the menu screen. Very useful tool.



That's because of hot, lucid dream sex.


You're just jelly that I lost my virginity before you did.

Anywho, time to check out the neighbor's house again. However, something's a little different about the map screen...



That's right! You'll now have random encounters on the map screen! This is the first instance of combat in the game, so I might as well go over the things you can do in battle.

The first menu in battle lets you pick between FIGHT, ESCAPE, TALK, and AUTO. FIGHT lets you, well, fight the enemies. It takes you to a second menu, where you can pick between slashing your enemy with your sword, shooting it with a gun, using an item, or casting magic on it. ESCAPE lets you attempt to run from the battle.

TALK lets you converse with the enemy. You could try to convince your enemy to leave you alone, give you an item, or even join your party! However, Dark monsters can't join your party, and Lawful monsters won't join your party if you're Chaotic, and vice versa. How the monster will react to you is pretty much up to luck, but I have heard that boosting the main character's Intelligence can have some effect. AUTO is basically an auto-battle feature. Helps with grinding. Anyway, after defeating the enemy, it's on to Margaret's!


My boner, and you are the only cure for it!




She already has a boyfriend??? Five bucks says he dies before the end of the game.

Nothing to do at her house, since she has a boyfriend. Time to check out the cafe, and see if anything's different! Well, random encounters now pop up here too.





Well, to appease your boredom, why don't you just visit the Drug Market?




Nope, too busy having dream sex.



Welp, there's our next clue.

However, on the way there, I recruited my very first demon!


Chirei means "spirit residing in the ground", if I'm translating it right. Brownies are not delicious desserts, as you would expect, but instead, a type of imp in Scottish folklore.

Chirei Brownies have awful offense, but they have two spells, one that increases your accuracy, and one that decreases the enemies' accuracy. The latter comes in handy quite often.

Now then, time to explain how you handle your minions. If you press the confirm button on the map screen, you'll open a menu. You can Summon, Dismiss, or Return your minion.

As you arrive, you meet a hobo.



Yeah man, I'm WAY more moe~ than Lucky Star.


No hobo, I'm not giving you any of my money.


Sir, do I need to take you to a nursery home?





Shit man, what kind of stuff have you been smoking?



Just like you can't change the path of you being a drunken hobo who spouts off nonsense?


Are you coming on to me?

So, you get another dream sequence. You meet your other ghostly pals, Larry and Curly, and you go through a building. You meet your mother.



I forgot to take a pic of when she says "I know you must do this, but..."


Have another kid? Where is the husband anyway?

Your mother disappears, and you enter the room.



Are you trying to summon /b/tards?




After this, he morphs into a demon and fights you.



Of course, it's one of those scripted boss fights. The fight goes on for maybe 2 rounds, and the dream sequence/acid trip ends.


Yeah, I admit, I wasn't ready to handle the sheer intensity of those drugs.


Yeahhhh anyway. Time to go home!

However, on the way home, you see...


Shit! I promise, I'll never download torrents again, just let me go!




I should probably explain something here. As I've mentioned earlier, I lost many screenshots from before. One of the screenshots was a scene where you see a man, and a demon comes in and brutally kills him. The demon then runs away. These dudes are referring to that scene.




Oh no! I've been jailed! What will I do now!

FIND OUT NEXT EPISODE


ps: How am I doing for my first LP?

[Fusionman]

Nice job.

Say are we fusing our dog with a demon to make Cerberus?

[Bifrost]

Originally Posted by Fusionman

Say are we fusing our dog with a demon to make Cerberus?

Doesn't that come much later in the game, after Earth gets the Noah's Ark treatment from YHVH? Maybe I'm remembering a different event. :I

[Fusionman]

Originally Posted by Bifrost

Doesn't that come much later in the game, after Earth gets the Noah's Ark treatment from YHVH? Maybe I'm remembering a different event. :I

Yeah no. Wrong plot event. You can get it before that boss he fought in that dream.

[Ravashak]

I see absolutely no reason not to vote for Kerberos to be fused from Pascal.
Reason: He's one of the best demons (level 40-ish?) and I think the only one you can get well before you're actually high enough level. Besides, you'll lose him pretty fast anyway so it won't break the game for that long.