Shin Megami Tensei 4 Apocalypse: Kill God or Die Trying

[RifleAvenger]

When last we left off, I had won a boss fight only to be confronted by another looming just ahead.

We’re heading in with Demiurge, Krishna, and Izanami.  Demiurge’s time as a one shot wonder has come.  He’ll be letting loose with Anticthon to deal massive damage while tacking on a debilitate effect.  Krishna is there to do his usual support thing, though he’ll be primarily focusing on casting Combat Tara.  The more expensive doping and debilitating can be done by Siddhartha and Demiurge respectively.  Izanami is there as filler.  She’ll throw up a tetraja at the start of the fight to block a light/dark attack, and then either attack, heal, or switch out to someone else as I get a better feel for the fight.  Honestly, there may be a lot of switching involved as I get a better impression for the fight.  I’m sticking with Hallelujah, hoping to replicate the speed with which we burned down Merkabah.

Krishna gets fed a chakra potion to restore 150 MP.  This isn’t much compared to older games, Apocalypse really cut back on the power of mana restoratives.  It should cover the 2-3 casting of Combat Tara I need him to do though.  After that, I head through the door.



Brane 3 (Mid?)Boss Battle:

With a mechanical whir, Metatron, the Voice of God, appears before us.  He condemns us for consorting with demon and false gods, for daring to raise our weapons against God with hearts filled with violence and sin.  There is to be no negotiation, he immediately attacks.

Beyond big a major power lorewise, Metatron is frequently one of, if not the most powerful, member of the Herald (Archangel) race in the games.  More often than not, he appears as a secret boss or even final boss.  His usual loadout is a number of very powerful almighty attacks, the ability to boost his own stats, and resistance to almost every element.  

It’s a bit of meta-knowledge, but his one vulnerability (though not always weakness) tends to be lightning.  Fortunately, both Demiurge and Izanami have Thunder Gods as a coverage spell, so I’ll be pretty well set if that turns out to be the case.  If all else fails, I’ll assail him with almighty attacks (though sometimes he even resists those!) and the protagonist’s piercing magic.

1. • First Turn Siddhartha uses Doping (will need to energy drain for the next few turns), Demiurge concentrates, Krishna uses Combat Tara, Izanami tests Metatron’s weak/resist to lightning since I’m on my last pressturn.  It works!  Looks like my meta knowledge is probably going to give me a big leg up here.  With my extra turn, I have Siddhartha use energy drain to replenish MP.  
   • 
   Metatron Luster Candy’s himself, and there unleashes Fire of Sinai at us.  This attack does 5 hits at random to my party, at about 300 damage per hit.  Izanami takes 1, Demiurge and Krishna take 2 each, with the latter barely holding on to life (he’d have died without the defense buff first turn).  Thankfully, despite how incredibly strong the attack is, that means he has only 2 press turns.
   
   
2. • Siddhartha can’t afford to use Salvation, so he instead throws a Zionga stone (medium lightning damage use item) at Metatron to earn an extra turn.  Krishna Combat Tara’s again.  Demiurge prepares to fire off Anticthon next turn with a Smile Charge.  Izanami heals everyone to full (Doped) HP with Mediaharan.  Siddhartha uses another zionga stone to buy another pressturn for Krishna, who lays down the last casting of Combat Tara to max out the party’s stat buffs.
   • Metatron uses Judgement Light, but without smirk for the instant kill it’s pretty harmless.  Only Demiurge takes any real amount of damage, and Siddhartha’s natural immunity strips away Metatron’s 2nd press turn.
   
   
3. • Siddhartha again uses a Zionga stone to grab a free turn, Krishna uses a Tetraja stone to give a one time null to Light for the entire party (needed in case Metatron smirks and casts Judgement light, the instant kill smirk only effect has an 80% success chance!).  Demiurge then expresses his displeasure with Metatron’s perceived insubordination (he thinks he’s God after all!), and Metatron gets debuffed all around in addition to taking substantial damage.  Izananmi concentrates.  Siddhartha has smirk, so he uses energy drain, since the auto-crit will grant an extra turn anyways.  Krishna uses Dream Raga to test Metatron’s status resistances; and the move actually works, thank you for making status ailments viable ATLUS!  Metatron is now asleep, panicked, and charmed, plus his defense got lowered a stage!  Demiurge concentrates.
   
   •
   Metatron sleeps through his turn, but shakes off all three status ailments by the end of it!
   
4. • Siddhartha concentrates, Krishna passes turn (no more need to use up MP for now), Demiurge and Izanami both fire of concentrated Thunder Gods (Severe lightning to one target, pierces w/ smirk).  Metatron falls.  Beyond the first turn scare of Fire of Sinai, guess he was just a midboss after all…
   •
   
5. •  Um, WHAT  ?!  Announcing that God shall create him as many times as it takes, Metatrons reappear from the previous one’s dust, and renew the attack.  Fortunately, I keep my party’s buffs this time around.  Siddhartha lets loose a concentrated, piercing Judgment Light (thanks to reflect resistance’s immunity to pierce being glitched, this is not the terrible idea it ought to be).  Krishna toots on his flute to try and repeat the status ailment spam again, but this time only scores a defense debuff.  Demiurge concentrates to prepare a Lightning Gods, as does Izanami.
   • The Metatron hordes uses Fire of Sinai (only 3 hits this time) followed by a Judgement Light (stopped by Krishna’s earlier use of a tetraja stone).
   
   
6. • Siddhartha energy drains, Krishna passes turn, Demi and Izanami cast Lightning Gods, Siddhartha concentrates, Krishna attacks (passing would waste an extra turn), and Demiurge casts Lightning Gods raw.
   
   •
   Metatron horde dekaja’s away most of my buffs (Doping remains in place), before ripping into me with a 5 hit Fire of Sinai.  Without buffs and debuffs to blunt the hits, that move puts most of the party into serious pain.
   
7. • Siddhartha gets vengeance with a concentrated, piercing Judgement Light that finishes the Metatrons off.  Metatron drop a chakra potion as a reward!

Brane 3 Exploration:

Coming out of the battle, I realize I’ve run a lot of my party members low on MP.  I elect to use my only Bead of Life to restore 100 MP to all my party members.  When we get to the next boss, I’ll probably have to use some MP restores on Krishna at least.  I then switch back to the regular adventuring party of Siddhartha, Seraph/Mastema, Odin, and Set.

I seem to be placed directly into the 3rd Brane proper, as I can see encounters moving about on the map in front of me.  There’s also teleporters to my right and left, two shortcut walls to the sides ahead of those, and a portal cube at the far end of the current platform (I activate it).  The shortcut walls are pretty pointless, immediately openable to chests that contain 3 chakra drops, a soma, and some relics.  The soma I was maxxed on (max of 3), so I fed one to Shiva before taking the new one.  Honestly, I’ll take whatever extra SP I can find.

The first encounter after the boss fight is ANOTHER METATRON!  He wasn’t kidding about being brought back as many times as needed!    Worse still, this Metatron is nearly as strong as the boss encounter.  It’s still level 98, has fire of Sinai, and nearly 10000 HP. The only thing it lacks is luster candy and a 2nd press turn.  Oh boy, this floor is going to be something…  Seraph levels to 99 off of that at least.

I investigate the left teleporter first, it takes me to 3rd Brane C.  Here there’s another portal cube, a long roundabout path to my left that arcs around to a staircase in front of me (the reward is a chest I can see next to a shortcut wall), a sealed red door, and a green door.  I check out the chest, dodging enemy encounters best I can.  The chest is disappointing, just a little macca, but there’s a previously unseen teleporter up here too.  I go to check the green door before trying the teleporter.

It takes me to 3rd Brane F, where there is yet another portal cube.  There is also a locked chest (need to find a power well now), a locked shining blue door, and 2 new teleporters all in close proximity.

Krishna levels up after an encounter, and I pass on having him learn drain Dark.  Doesn’t seem like a popular attack typing around these angel filled parts. In his whisper event he upgrades Siddhartha’s Doping, making it slightly cheaper.

I take the furthest teleporter to 3rd Brane D.  It looks identical to the last two mini-branes, with two more doors (one green,STR this time so no go) two teleporters, a lot of encounters milling about, and useless relics.  Geez!  At least this one also has a power well!  I use that to go check out the chest in brane F.  It turns out it has an armor boost kit and x10 megidola stones inside (I lose the stones since I’m already maxxed on them).

Siddhartha levels to 99.  This is as strong as I get!  I finally spend all my remaining app points.  I buy the 50% compendium discount and Skill Smoother 1-4 (reduces SP costs, except for the protagonist, by 4 points).  Honestly?  Should have done the latter ones at the start of this damn dungeon.  I decide I might as well use my armor upgrade kits now, since I haven’t found anything else I like, using two each on each piece of armor. 

Then I go back to Brane D and travel into the teleporter I haven’t used yet.  It takes me back to Brane B!  Looped around, time to check all the other routes I ignored so far.  An unused teleporter in Brane F takes me to Brane G, which looks like a copy of Brane B.  The two chests contain some status ailment use items, more alluring water, but more importantly a chakra potion!  I activate another portal cube, before investigating a strange red gem. That opens one or more red shining doors.  I take a teleporter to Brane E.

Another clone of the Brane C style island.  This time there seems to be a shining white door, and easy access to the area with all the doors is blocked by a power well required shortcut wall.  A chest on the upper loop area contains a balm of rising item (revive, but no resummons, to full hp).  The white door is locked, and the green door needs STR, so I take the unused 2nd teleporter instead.  I takes me back to 3rd Brane C.  There’s a red door there, so I check if I can enter it now, I can.


It takes me to Brane H, where I find a white/gold crystal (unlocking those doors) and then wind up fighting an encounter that got reinforcements 4 times.  Luckily I never drew anything awful, but it really drives home how crazy the random encounters are here.  All high level, some with 5000+ HP per enemy and as high as 10000, and higher than normal chance for enemy reinforcements.  Energy drain and the wonderful set of resistances the exploration party possesses keep me afloat, but I'm digging into my supply of healing items pretty regularly now.  I ignore the wider swath of Brane H to investigate the now unlocked doors.

I emerge in 3rd Brane J, which has two power well walls and a power well chest.  There’s also a regular chest, which contains x3 patra stone (cures mind ailments) and 5 dis-poison (cures poison and sick).  I use the portal cubes to get to Brane D to E and then to J.   I break the walls and the chest, which had a diamond and 15 mabufu stones (weak ice to all).  Past the walls is a door to 3rd Brane L.

Within is an area that sort of resembles Branes B and G.  Only besides the useless shortcut walls with chests and relics, there’s also two more doors and a teleporter.  Seraphs begins appearing as an enemy here as well (not as impressive as the occasional Metatron spawn though)!  The 1st door I try leads to 3rd Brane N, and up some stairs there is the Anomaly (stairs) to the 4th Brane.  Huh, no boss fight!  As much as I’m probably leaving behind in the 3rd Brane, for now my best bet to finish the run alive is to move forward, so I do so.

Overall, this was kind of a mixed floor.  Metatron had one attack that could do serious damage (Fire of Sinai stacking on one target for multiple hits), but otherwise couldn't threaten me.  The regular encounters were rather stiff in terms of raw power, but they were also less common in the more compressed subzones (constantly going in and out of doors/teleporters seriously cut down on the number of encounters I ran into).  The excellent resistances of my exploring party also blunted a lot of the danger.  That said, while no one fight ever put me on the edge, I did use a lot of my weaker healing items this floor.  If there's a lot of floors left, or a floor that's as encounter happy as 2nd Brane with the powerful encounters of 3rd Brane, I'm going to fuse most of my MP spent party members away to make out of battle healers.  I'd much rather save fusions of exhausted party members for making backup combatants for the finale against God.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel though.  As I entered the 4th Brane, what’s left of Dagda in my smartphone informs me that I’m almost there…

[RifleAvenger]

According to Dagda, Flynn, and most of my party, this is the final Stretch.  Only one more labyrinthine floor full of archangels stands between me and the Creator.

God's Universe, 4th Brane Exploration: 

4th Brane A is an open, mid sized platform with a hole in the middle, some relics scattered about, and three doors besides the one I entered the floor through.  Once again, I’ll start with the leftmost door.

This takes me to 4th Brane H, where I am greeted by the wrong side of a shortcut wall.  A further walk around reveals that this subzone has a good degree of verticality to it, with several lower levels connected via stairs below.  However, I cannot reach them, nor the doors or teleporters beyond, from this side.  Time to try something else.

The middle door in Brane A takes me to 4th Brane L.  Once again, I get a wide view of the floor, but there’s no way forward.

The enemies on this floor are mostly the same as the 3rd Brane, and I’m starting to think they’re not going to change again.  So rumors of level 99 mobs everywhere were inflated, but these enemies do range from the high 80’s into the 90’s, so they are quite high level.  The encounters also now feel smarter than the ones on 3rd Brane, pulling out more single target spells to strike weaknesses, but I’m thinking this down more to luck.  Given how wide the sub-branes here seem, my fear from before about having to fight them more often is also coming true.

The final door from Brane A takes me to Brane B.  It’s just a snaking path to a solitary door on the far side of the sub-area.  However, I’m immediately confronted with an enemy Mastema and Seraph!  Despite having their brothers (clones?) in my employ, I find they’re in no mood to look the other way after a failed attempt to hail them for a truce (was worth a try…).  

They’re not weak either, both survive my first turn attacks, with Mastema using a Megidolaon that deals serious damage, Seraph killing Set with Trisagion (severe fire dmg to one target) and Mastema dropping Odin and bringing Siddhartha and my Seraph to low HP with another Megidolaon.  Oh, and the Seraph Smirked too so unless I take care of that its next Trisagion is going to crit and pierce.

Siddhartha is smirking, but has to use his/her turn to summon the REAL Mastema (mine) to wipe that smirk from enemy Seraph’s face.  Seraph uses salvation, putting his MP very low (and against these foes he only gets about 30 MP back per energy drain).  Mastema uses magaon.  Enemy Mastema uses Megidolaon, but Siddhartha dodges to prevent enemy Seraph from grabbing a turn.  After 2 more turns of attacking, and one more Salvation from Siddhartha, the two imposters fall.  

I use two revival beads after the battle to revive Set and Odin (six left), and heal them up with a combination of Ox Bezoars (heals 150 HP each) and Life Stones (20% max HP heal).  I elect not to resummon Set for now though (Mastema is staying in for now instead), because his fire weakness has led to some very scary moments.  If I need Set to seal some enemies I can summon him midbattle instead.  Odin is nearly out of MP, but his Repel Gun resistance fills a needed resist and he can always use an item or pass turn.

I work my way to the door, fighting a horde encounter and yet another Metatron on the way (the latter refused to use Fire of Sinai and so was very good for restoring Seraph’s depleted MP).  Going through the door takes me to 4th Brane C, which has a gold door and a regular door on opposite sides of the floor.  I check the gold one first, since it’s closer.  Surprisingly, it’s not locked, and takes me to 4th brane R.  R?!  Looks like this might be a very long floor.

Brane R has a door up some stairs and a locked shining blue wall past that.  There’s also even more relics, this floor seems to want to shower the player with money (too bad it’s not in a form I can use).  However, climbing the stairs I run into Metatron HORDE (lvl 99!).  Oh, come on! 

It’s no joke.  It has a ton of HP, can buff its own magic, Fire of Sinai, and Megidolaon!  The last attack is actually the worst, as the horde seems to have poor luck on getting more than 1-2 hits with Fire of Sinai.  I actually have to buff up against it, only for it to dekaja me and drop Mastema/Odin in a single hit!  I summon Krishna, status ailment the horde, and then kill it when it’s disabled.  Then a second Metatron horde shows up as reinforcements!  I’m done messing around; I summon Shiva, start using anti-boss tactics like Imposing Stance, and I even blow a partner assault.  I drop the horde with a smirked Judgement Light from Siddhartha, only for yet ANOTHER Metatron horde to spawn in! 

After several more rounds of close calls and going full blast, I finally win and get 500000 experience for the fight (sadly ¾ members in the party at the time are lvl 99).  Krishna and Shiva are pretty much out of MP now, and that won’t do.  So I immediately use two chakra potions, a soma drop, and seven chakra drops between the two of them (putting me down to two potions and 5 chakra drops left).  I remember that Cherub has a little MP left after the bead of life was used beginning of Brane 3, so I use that to revive and heal the killed party members.  

I really hope that mob is rare.  Anyways, I figure I can’t be having useless depleted party members at this point, so I go and start to fuse off several party members.  Cherub is out of MP, and while Mitra has over half there’s really nothing Mitra does that Shiva doesn’t do better (besides having an overly expensive almighty magic attack that requires smirk to be any good).  Fusing the two of them together creates the lvl 90 Fallen Angle Samael (despite his lore entry saying his fallen status is debated).  The “Poison of God” has not only healing capability, but a very strong almighty attack and a move that can inflict every status simultaneously (shivering taboo).  In other words, I may get more use out of him than just a healbot, and more utility overall than Mitra gives as a poor-man’s Shiva.

I also pay 26,000 macca to fuse that useless Vetala into Lakshmi using a Hekatoncheires from the compendium.  Lakshmi’s outdated, but she has a full heal for healbotting, as well as some attack spells plus dekaja and war cry (debuffs enemy attack and defense) if she has to step into combat.  

Lastly, I fuse Haung Di with a compendium Dominion for another 23000 to summon Azrael.  Azrael, like Lakshmi, is behind the power curve.  However, he has fire/dark/light attacks, an all enemy charm move, both a cheap single target full heal and salvation, and luster candy/makarakarn.  Once again, he’ll healbot and mob kill as I find use for him.  If Flynn manages to pick up a bunch of macca for me this floor, I’ll be able to special fusion Azrael with some demons from the compendium to summon Alliat, something powerful enough to actually consider using in boss fights.

With the fusion out of the way, I venture forth into the door that isn’t locked.  It takes me to 4th Brane P, another area that’s just a long walkway with doors on both sides.  I try the nearby green door first, which leads to 4th Brane I.  It’s just a brief stairway climb to yet another door, but there is a chest with a bead chain in here.  I can’t take it since I’m maxxed out on Bead chains (3 quantity limit), but the chest will remain here if I happen to use one.  It takes me to Brane K, a clone of I.  The chest here has x3 dekaja stones and a Soma I cannot take because I’m maxxed on them too.  

Mastema also indicates he wishes to talk with me.  Mastema assures me that he will follow me to the end because, curiously, he indicates that being God’s enemy is also a path to knowing Him.  Mastema also gives me a gift: a Bead of Life!  Jackpot!  I don't know what the Mr. Glover reference is though.

The door out of Brane K takes me to Brane J, a solitary platform with a teleporter.  It takes me to 4th Brane M, which has a second teleporter and two power well walls.  These walls seem to be a waste of time though; one is empty behind it and the other just has a relic spawn.  I take the teleporter to Brane G, a clone of Brane M.  Yet another teleporter and two more power well walls, this time one has a chest behind it.  

The teleporter takes me to Brane Q.  It’s a larger floor with some verticality, but nearer to me is a power well.  I power up and go get that chest in Brane G.  Turns out the “empty” walls were also hiding power well required chests.  However, ultimately all of the chests were just filled with attack stones I’m already maxxed on.  The only pickup worth mentioning is an attack mirror.

I explore Brane Q, and find a green door, but it needs strength.  In the distance I see another door and two inactive teleporters.  I try the teleporter I can reach, and it just sends me to the other one.  That gives me access to the other door though.  Before I get there though, an encounter I get into gets reinforced by a Metatron Horde!

Honestly, esp. given their likelihood of resummoning another one for reinforcements when they die, Metatron hordes are basically a boss fight I can run into as a random encounter.  This time I play smarter and summon up Demiurge for his Lightning God’s spell.  I still have several really close calls, and have to use a lot of my best moves (buffs and salvation) just to stay alive.  Demiurge goes out of MP by the end of the second Metatron to show up, but a smirking Siddhartha instant kills the third and last group to appear.  Mastema levels to 99.

Metatron spawns, double Metatron spawns, and Metatron hordes soon seem to be much more common here.  I need to try and get out of this encounter zone ASAP.  I use two more revival items and some healbot SP to heal up and revive a dead Izanami and Inanna (both have lightning attack to hit the weakness, but very low HP and so tend to get overwhelmed if a Fire of Sinai multihits them).

And, irritatingly enough, that door I went through who knows how many Metatrons to get to?  Turns out it leads to a literal dead end, Brane O, an area with no other ways out and no treasure.

I backtrack to Brane P where I last branched off a path.  I decide to use a Soma to give Inanna a bit of SP back, so I can pick up the one from the chest I found earlier.  I run into another new encounter, a Seraph Army (horde of Seraphs).  That other door in Brane P takes me to Brane L, but this side is blocked by a shortcut wall (there must be something that accesses the lower areas of this area directly).

So I keep backtracking again, this time to Brane C, where I try that other door I never tried.  I also unlock a portal cube.  Samael levels up and learns doping in place of Smile Charge.  I find a Chakra Potion, three Hustle Drinks (Restores 450 HP ea), and three summon stones (revives and resummons a demon) in a chest.  I take the door to Brane D.  It’s another long snaking path to a door.  After another Metatron Horde encounter within, I elect to use the Bead of Life Mastema gave me to restore some MP to the entire party.  Azrael levels up, getting Null Dark to replace Makarakarn, and does a whisper event that upgrades Siddhartha’s Judgement Light and Salvation (making both cheaper to use).  Given the large number of Metatrons in this area, Mara winds up using a lot of her MP using Lightning Gods to exploit the weakness.

Finally I get to the door and emerge in 4th Brane E.  To my right is a Strength green door, a portal cube, and a chest with x2 Alluring Water.  There’s a door to my left, another door blocked by a shortcut wall in front of me, and two more doors up some stairs on a raised platform.  The left door leads to the dead end Brane N.   The first door on the raised platform takes me to the shortcut wall door (the one also in Brane E).  The final door takes me to 4th Brane F.

4th Brane F looks exactly like 2nd Brane K (the one with all the jump off points), including having a teleporter between the upper and lower platform and a chest on one side of the area.  The chest has a Balm of Rising (full HP revive) and two summon stones.  Also, at this point I’m running from any single Metatron encounter, healing and energy draining before attempting the run on the last press turn.  They just aren’t worth the MP, and a starting 41% run rate (escape chance increases every failed attempt) means I’ll get away in 1-3 turns.  Metatron Hordes, sadly, have only a 7% success rate for running, so I have to grin and bear those.

The door out leads to 4th Brane S, a series of three long platforms rising one above the other with a door on each platform.  However, what catches me eye is the unique structure atop a very long staircase that towers above the rest of the Brane; it looks unique and screams “boss fight.”  Upon further investigation, I do indeed get a warning of a powerful demon ahead.  

4th Brane Boss Battle:

This seems like it’s going to be major, so I pop a bunch of SP restoring items on Shiva, Inanna, and Krishna.  At the end, I have 1 Chakra potion, 2 Soma Drops, and 3 Soma left for SP restoratives.

I also decide that Demiurge and Mara are never going to see usable MP again, now that I know how low my SP restores are spread (and this isn’t the final battle, the location of God’s Throne is still “Floor Unknown”).  I combine them to create Mot, the Mesopotamian god of death.  He’s lower level than both of them, but has decent magic and a deep SP pool.  He gets Demiurge’s movepool almost in its entirety plus Megidolaon as a cheaper alternative to Anticthon.  Mot also inherits Mara’s Reflect Ice and Reflect Physical.  Mot keeps Lightning Gods despite having a terrible affinity for it: the SP cost is actually not that much higher for some reason, it’s still far cheaper than either of his other two attacks, and I thought it'd do the same damage (I believed affinity only affected SP cost, I turned out to be wrong about that). 

I take Siddhartha, Mastema, Krishna, and Shiva for my party.  Siddhartha can do any role on the fly, Mastema is an attacker (chosen over the others for now because he can energy drain and his resistances best compliment the rest of the party), Krishna is going to go whole hog on support, and Shiva can both hit hard and has some good support (imposing stance, tetrakarn).  Roles, esp. the attacker role, will be swapped as needed.

I ascend the stairs, and come to a dead end.  Then, Walter and Johnathan’s spirits appear and proclaim that Lucifer and Merkabah will fuse and return “to their original form.”  

The fusion occurs before our eyes, and we find ourselves standing before Satan, God’s Judge.  Note: In Shin Megami Tensei Satan is usually a separate entity from Lucifer/the Devil.  Instead, he is portrayed as he originally was in the Torah, the angel who tested the faith of man and judged sinners.  As such, in the games he is usually loyal to God, at least at first.

Satan reveals that while he has faithfully served God by testing humanity on His behalf, it is also his opinion that God has lost His own way and must be judged.  This has manifested in the Axiom, the metaphysical laws and will of the multiverse, sending messiahs to overthrow God.  Satan wishes to test us to see if we are those messiahs/proof that humanity has what it takes to become "the next will of this universe."  There's also a very cool little conversation at the beginning of the battle between Satan and Mastema, with Mastema regarding Satan as his predecessor (both were angels who presided over testing mankind).

1. • 1st turn, Siddhartha uses Doping, Krishna casts Combat Tara, Shiva uses Imposing Stance, Mastema passes turn, Siddhartha casts Luster Candy.  Hallelujah does his usual.
   
   • .
   Satan has a full three press turns, so he’s a real boss.  Shiva strips one.  Satan then uses Akasha Arts on Mastema, and Meggido Ark (MEGA almighty dmg to one target) to Siddhartha.  Both attacks strip more than half of the targets’ undoped HP totals with two stacks of defense buff up, Doping is a necessity for this fight.
   
   
2. • 2nd Turn Siddhartha uses Salvation to heal all to full, Krishna Debilitates Satan (in case he dekaja’s I’d rather not have all my eggs in the buff basket), Shiva uses Imposing Stance, Mastema Smile Charge’s.
   
   • Satan Magaon’s to remove Mastema’s smirk, and nearly kills Hallelujah with Akasha Arts.
   
   
3. • 3rd turn Siddhartha casts the final buff stack, Krishna debilitates again, Shiva casts tetrakarn (hoping to catch an Akasha Arts), Mastema passes turn, and Siddhartha Concentrates.
   
   • Satan doesn’t like me having used that Tetrakarn, and so tosses three trisagions all at Siddhartha.  Buffs/Debuffs and Doping’s higher max HP keeps the protagonist alive.
   
   
4. • 4th turn Siddhartha fires off a Judgement Light, Krishna uses a bead to heal Siddhartha to full, Shiva charges (with full buffs/debuffs I’m less threatened by Satan’s offense), Mastema Smile Charges.
   
   • Satan gauges my efforts so far, and asks if I can overcome the despair of seeing all my efforts come to naught.  He then heals his HP to full (and it’s not even his turn, so it doesn’t use a press turn).  As suspected though, with buffs/debuffs, his damage output is now cut, but he does obnoxiously magaon Mastema again. 
   
   
5. • 5th turn, Siddhartha energy drains, Krishna applies the last debuff stack, Shiva uses Akasha Arts (only 900 dmg, Satan must resist physical), and Mastema tries to Smile Charge again (at least it makes Satan use up a move on Magaon).
   
   •. 
   Satan Dekaja’s, Dekunda’s, and nearly kills Mastema with Akasha Arts.  Looks like I need to be more efficient, I've hardly done any damage and all my buffing/debuff was wiped away.
   
   
6. • 6th turn, I need some buffs again; Luster Candy and Combat Tara are used.  Shiva uses Tetrakarn, Mastema attacks with smirked Ice Age, Siddhartha heals Mastema with a bead.
   
   • .
   Satan declares he will test my resolve in a battle where one finds themselves outmatched, and reduces my entire party to 1 HP.  I reply to his question about how I would turn the situation around by saying I’d rely on my demons.  Azrael responds by killing himself in my reserve to full heal my active party, and give Siddhartha a free all buffs stack.  Satan then Luster Candy’s and misses a Meggido Arc aimed at Siddhartha. 
   
   
7. • 7th turn, Siddhartha uses a Dekaja stone to strip Satan’s buff, Krishna Debilitates Satan, Shiva passes turn, Mastema Smile Charges, Siddhartha Concentrates and I use my Partner Assault.  Asahi heals my wounded party members, Isabaeu gives everyone else their last Lust Candy stack, damage is dealt, and Siddhartha and Shiva both smirk. 
   
   
8. · 8th turn, Siddhartha attacks with charged/smirked Judgement Light, Krisha debilitates Satan, and Shiva uses Akasha Arts.  Satan stops the fight, saying he’s seen enough, and offers to show us to God’s Throne.
   

I close my eyes, and when I awaken, I find myself in Non-Euclidean Space, Throne of God.  Before me stands a giant, shining gate.  I'm pretty sure of what lies behind it.  It seems my journey has nearly reached its end, but the hardest part is yet to come.  

Will Siddhartha and his/her allies be able to overcome God?

[RefSteel]

Cool reporting - thanks again for posting this, and I'm looking forward to the conclusion!

One item: Satan doesn't appear in the Torah at all (under that name, though it's said that Satan is the Serpent in Eden). I think the only appearance of the name in the Old Testament is in Job, where the Hebrew is "hasatan" - "the satan." In Job of course, "hasatan's" role is very much one of judgment and testing faith.

(Some confusion may arise because though the Torah is just the first five books of the Jewish Old Testament - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy - Jewish scholars often refer to the whole of all Jewish religious written and oral tradition as "torah." In English, the distinction is usually made with a lower-case "t," but in Hebrew there are no capitals, and it's just the same word.)

[EDIT: Some confusion may also exist (in my brain) because my sources of information are different from those used by e.g. the makers of Shin Megami Tensei. "Torah" likely means something very different to most people in the world (to the extent it means anything to them at all) than it does to scholars of Jewish myth and theology.]

[Dp101]

That boss is goddam brutal. 1HP? Surprised you got through.

[RifleAvenger]

One item:  Satan doesn't appear in the Torah at all (under that name, though it's said that Satan is the Serpent in Eden).  I think the only appearance of the name in the Old Testament is in Job, where the Hebrew is "hasatan" - "the satan."  In Job of course, "hasatan's" role is very much one of judgment and testing faith.

(Some confusion may arise because though the Torah is just the first five books of the Jewish Old Testament - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy - Jewish scholars often refer to the whole of all Jewish religious written and oral tradition as "torah."  In English, the distinction is usually made with a lower-case "t," but in Hebrew there are no capitals, and it's just the same word.)

[EDIT: Some confusion may also exist (in my brain) because my sources of information are different from those used by e.g. the makers of Shin Megami Tensei. "Torah" likely means something very different to most people in the world (to the extent it means anything to them at all) than it does to scholars of Jewish myth and theology.]

I actually did know that the proper name is hasatan, but I didn't want to confuse anyone.  It's that character from Job that SMT bases Satan on, though it also expands the character quite a bit.  However, it is utterly my fault for saying Torah, as that normally refers to a very specific set of scripture.  So I apologize for that since it's blatant misinformation.

SMT's developers actually do pretty decent research into the mythologies they use, though certainly not on the level of scholarly works.  On the flipside, they take some serious liberties with characterization when they want, the best example I can think of being Krishna in this game.  Vishnu and his avataras were very positively depicted in previous games, so SMT's developers aimed to make him villainous in this game to stress the message that no divinities truly have mankind's back in this story.  However, they did so in a very easy "mustache twirling villain" way, instead of using some of the actual examples from Hinduism that could have been spun in a negative light (Rama's justification for killing Vali or Krishna's role in convincing Arjuna to go to war could have been used as a template). About the best they do is having Krishna's master plan be a twisted version of Moksha/Nirvana.

That boss is goddam brutal. 1HP? Surprised you got through.

He did have surprisingly little HP, though I may again be discounting Hallelujah's constant contributions while I played defense.  That fits with him just testing our ability though. For all I know the goal was actually to survive the fight for a long enough time and not actually "beat" him.

[RifleAvenger]

Throne of God, the Final Battle

Seems like this is it.  I grab a nearby unfortunate encounter to energy drain, and then pop the rest of my MP items except for a single Soma (just to give me a little flexibility in the final battle).  I revive Azrael in the off chance he’ll be needed somehow.  A short walk away is the giant golden door, the end of my long journey.  The final dungeon actually wasn't as long as I thought it would be, but I’m glad to have reached the end with MP to spare.


I’m heading in with Mot, Krishna, and Inanna.  I don’t need to use energy Drainers, since this is the last fight, so I’d rather have someone who can concentrate to deal higher damage per turn.  Krishna is again my main support.  Inanna can both support and hit hard, and her excellent coverage means she won’t be stonewalled without a smirk if God is resistant to physical.  I also switch to Isabeau.  Hallelujah is my bro, but I’d rather have the safety blanket of free healing and buffs in this fight than somewhat improved damage per turn.  Plus, I think it’s pretty cool to have her fighting alongside Flynn in the final battle (since they were the protagonists of the neutral route in SMT 4).


As I stand before the gate, a voice warns me to turn back and repent.  I ignore it, and head on.  Past that gate is a great stairway and another gate. Again at the gate, the voice speaks, saying I have been deceived by demons and false gods, and that should I turn back all shall be forgiven.  I do not heed it, and press on.  There is final gate, and a final warning: that destroying God would destroy the universe as we know it.  The voice offers me one final opportunity to turn back, saying that the world would be assured peace so long as it swore to abide God’s covenant.  I continue on. (Note, I experimented later, and actually turning back and leaving ends the game with a nonstandard game-over!).


And so, the battle that will decide mankind's fate, and that of the entire universe, begins...

The Final Battle, Part 1, The Face of God:

My party and I debate with God prior to the fight, each one putting in their own two cents.  The human party members assert their faith in mankind, the gods and demons throw bile God’s way, and the angels remain silent.  Satan steps out, declaring that as an aspect of God, he shall judge God Himself (the angels in my party now give their assent) for straying from His own path.


Satan then declares that since my party is waging this battle on behalf of humanity, he shall fight as a human.  He destroys himself to give Walter and Johnathan life again, that they might fight by our side.  Isabeau actually splits off from me to join Flynn’s party, making me choose someone else.  In all honesty I SHOULD choose Asahi or Hallelujah, but I go with Navarre instead.  That way the entire SMT 4 team is in this fight together (though Navarre wasn’t such a team player back then).  My turns will alternate between the two parties.  At the time, I assumed either one being wiped out would be Game Over, but apparently that isn't the case (The fight will continue if Flynn's party is wiped out, but if the protagonist's party dies you lose).

1. • God takes the 1st turn for Himself, casting Luster Candy on himself twice and using an ability called Silence that says He’ll “watch to see what I do.”  Sounds like a counter, though it could be just an inbuilt way to waste press turns in an early stage of the fight.  Throughout this entire fight, the party debates God, trying to tear down His words.  Each time this occurs, some of the faces in the background vanish.  What remains of Dagda informs me that this is mankind’s power of “understanding,” and that if we use it right we can strip God of His divinity, bringing him down to the same level as a demon, making him vulnerable.
         
   • 1st turn for the party, Siddhartha casts Luster Candy, Krishna uses a dekaja stone, Inanna debilitates God, Mot Concentrates, Navarre casts Doping on the party.
   
   
2. • 2nd Turn, God debilitates Flynn’s party twice and uses Silence again.
   
   • Flynn’s party’s turn.  Since they’re all humans, they can all use items.  Flynn specializes in healing abilities and almighty attacks, including one that can give God weakness or lower his resistances!  I use that move (Godslayer’s Sword), getting an extra press turn and making God weaker to gun attacks.  Isabeau has all the moves she usually does, and of those I have her use Luster Candy to get rid of some of the debuffs (no dekunda stones in the Flynn party inventory).  Johnathan has many of Merkabah’s moves, including Chariot but not Thou Shalt Not Resist.  I have him Concentrate.  Walter, likewise, has many of Lucifer’s moves (including Evil Gleam lol).  I have him debilitate God, but he can’t do stuff like that too often as his MP is awful.  Flynn uses a smirked anticthon to deal damage, grab another turn, and debilitate God to max debuffs.  Isabeau Luster Candy’s off the remain debuff stack.
   
   
3. • 3rd turn, God uses a physical move called Divine Wave on Mot, which gets reflected back into His face.
   
   • Siddhartha Concentrates, Krishna casts Combat Tara, Inanna concentrates, Mot casts Thunder gods, but God resists it and it barely does any damage.  Navarre buffs the party’s defense.
   
   
4. • 4th turn, God uses Divine Wave on Walter, then misses a second at Flynn.
   
   • Flynn uses godslayer’s sword (God becomes weaker to Phys), Isabeau attacks (God seems to be neutral to Phys now), Johnathan tests God’s gun resist with Riot Gun (also neutral now), Walter uses critical eye to guarantee a crit on his next Physical move, Flynn uses godslayer’s sword (God’s now weak to gun), and Isabeau just attacks again with the last extra turn.  End of turn Navarre denies God’s love, saying it’s just empty pity.
   
   • It seems to me now that this first part of the fight is just a lead up to whatever happens when we strip God of divinity.  I’d better conserve MP for whatever happens when we turn God into a Demon, or He gets really mad at us for trying.  (Note, this section seems to work that every 3000 cumulative damage you do to God, one of your human partners gets to dent Him.  You need everyone to do so to proceed, but all of Flynn's party goes at the start of the fight so it's only the six you can choose as a partner for the fight that matter)
   
   
5. • 5th turn, God uses Luster Candy, attacks Inanna, and uses Silence.
   
   • Siddhartha uses Judgement Light, which does a lot of damage thanks to Siddhartha’s innate pierce.  Hallelujah denies God for demanding so much and giving so little in return.  Krishna heals Inanna with a Hustle Drink.  Inanna passes turn (none of God’s elemental weaknesses have been dropped yet).  Mot Concentrates.  Siddhartha concentrates.  Navarre debilitates God back to max debuff.
   
   
6. • 6th turn, God attacks Walter and Johnathan, and then Smile Charges.
   
   • Flynn Godslayer Sword’s (DRK resist down), Isabeau drinks a chakra potion, Johnathan uses Riot Gun, Walter uses magaon to get rid of that smirk, Flynn Godslayer sword’s (DRK down again), Isabeau uses Luster Candy.
   
   
7. • 7th turn, God uses Mouth of God, instant killing Mot, Planned Chaos (random status ailments to party, think Grand Cross) which binds Inanna (the others must have resisted whatever they drew), and an attack to Siddhartha.
   
   • Siddhartha uses Concentrated/Piercing Judgement Light, Krishna uses a summon stone to revive and resummons Mot, Inanna is paralyzed.  Navarre reapplies Doping to Mot.
   
   
8. • 8th turn, God uses Hailstorm of God (heavy or severe piercing ice to all) on Flynn’s party, Luster Candy’s, and attacks Isabeau.
   
   • Flynn Anticthon’s to debilitate God back to max debuffs, Isabeau heals the party with mediarama (heavy heal to all), Walter attacks with a critical Berserker God, Johnathan throws Flynn a Chakra Potion, Flynn uses Godslayer’s Sword (I forgot what it lowered), Isabeau attacks, Johnathan passes, smirked Walter uses Berserker God.  Asahi denies God for judging people's worth solely based on if they believe in Him.
   
   
9. • 9th turn, God hits Siddhartha’s party down to 1HP and drains half current MP from each party member (scripted "negotiation" event)!  He offers me a final chance to join Him, if I will turn against Flynn.  I choose to ignore him, and while he awaits my answer I get to take my turn.
   
   • The SP drain was NOT good.  Siddhartha energy drains, Krishna takes my last Soma, Inanna passes turn, Mot concentrates, Siddhartha uses Salvation.  Navarre buffs our defense.  End of turn Gaston has some more words for God, and He loses a bit more divinity.
   
   
10. • 10th turn, God attacks Johnathan, hits all of Flynn’s party with Inferno of God (same as hailstorm, but fire), and drops them all to 1 HP with Miracle.
    
    • Flynn uses Godslayer’s Sword (Fire resist down, finally an element I have in Siddhartha’s party), Isabeau attacks with Agidyne (heavy fire), Walter uses Critical Eye, Johnathan passes turn, Flynn heals his party to full with Mediaharan, Isabeau feeds Flynn a Chakra potion.
    
    
11. • 11th turn, god instant kills Mot again, attacks Siddhartha, and uses miracle to drop the party to 1 HP (good thing he did that last).  
    
    • Siddhartha summon stone’s Mot back, Krishna uses a bead chain to heal everyone, Inanna finally uses her concentrate with Raging Hellfire.  Nozomi argues against monotheism, further stripping divinity.  I partner assault (which means Krishna using the bead chain was a mistake, since Asahi would have full healed me in the assault), and Navarre buffs the party defense again (for Mot, who loses the buffs every time he dies).
    
    
12. • 12th turn, Godslayer’s sword (gun down), Agidyne from Isabeau, Riot Gun from Johnathan, Walter Berserker God’s criticals, Flynn godslayer sword’s again (elec down), everyone else attacks.  Toki strips God of the last of his divinity by saying forgiveness is an awful idea, because it excuses people’s weakness.
    
    • God  attacks Krishna and uses inferno of God, but Siddhartha and Krishna dodge, stripping God of his last pressturn.
    
    
13. • 13th turn, Siddhartha energy drains, smirking Krishna attacks for the free turn from the crit, smirking Inanna gets a crit with Raging Hellfire and finishes God off…
    

 

The Final Battle, Part 2, The Wrath of God!:

BUT IT’S NOT OVER YET.  YHVH is diminished, yes, but now he is a very angry Demiurge composed of various animal parts all stuck together. His godly demeanor broken, desperate to reassert himself as divine, he will no longer hold back an inch.  The real fight begins here, and with all effects reset this is essentially a different fight.

1. • 1st turn, YHVH once again goes first, starting out with a move called Infinite Power that grants him smirk and maxxed out stats.  He spends the rest of this first turn trembling with scorn for us.
   
   • Siddhartha Luster Candy’s, Krishna removes YHVH’s stat buffs with a dekaja stone, Inanna debilitates, Mot concentrates, Navarre dopes.  I suddenly realize I forgot to heal off the damage I entered the fight with.
   
   
2. • 2nd turn YHVH uses a move called Crush, which hits Walter hard with a crit (giving the enemy an extra move), following with Rampage (8-15 light physical hits to random party members) mostly to Flynn and Johnathan.  One hit misses to strip a pressturn.  YHVH then hits Isabeau hard with another Crush.
   
   • Flynn uses smirked Anticthon to debilitate YHVH and claim an extra turn, Isabeau heals the party, Johnathan Concentrates, Walter Debilitates, Flynn uses Godslayer’s Sword (fire down), and Isabeau gives a chakra potion to Flynn (Flynn’s party only has one left now).  (Isabeau is lvl 99 in the screencap because I tried to recreate the fight while writing the report for additional screenshots, since I forgot to take many on the initial run).
   
   
3. • 3rd Turn YHVH uses Supernova (MEGA almighty damage to all), following with Crush on Krishna.  With my party still hurt from before it puts everyone except Siddhartha very low.  Then the enemy uses Rampage, which threatens to kill pretty much all my gods, who are all low enough to die to only 1-2 out of the many hits!  I get extremely lucky though, Inanna takes only the one she could endure, Mot reflects 5 hits back to YHVH (and smirks), Siddhartha soaks 5 hits easily, and Krishna doesn’t get hit at all!
   
   • Siddhartha concentrates, Krishna heals everyone with a bead chain, Inanna concentrates, Mot casts Anticthon, Siddhartha uses the extra turn to cast Luster Candy.  Navarre buffs the party’s defense with Rakukaja. 
   
   
4. • 4th turn YHVH casts Divine Harmony, cancelling all effects on Flynn’s team.  He then rips into them with Supernova and recasts Infinite Power.
   
   • Flynn uses one of his bead chains to heal everyone, Isabeau luster candy’s, Johnathan dekaja’s, Walter uses magaon to get rid of the smirk.
   
   
5. • 5th turn YHVH foolishly uses rampage first, ensuring a strike against Mot that ends his turn then and there (Mot also smirks).
   
   • Siddhartha maxes out everyone’s buffs with a final Luster Candy, Krishna debilitates, Inanna casts concentrated Raging Hellfire and scores a crit, Mot concentrates.  Siddhartha unleashes his concentrated/piercing Judgement Light.  Navarre Debilitates.
   
   
6. • 6th turn, YHVH uses Lightning of God (Inferno/Hailstorm but electric), uses Planned Chaos (Walter charmed, Johnathan charmed/panicked, Isabeau unaffected, Flynn poisoned), and uses Unending Curse on Flynn’s team (all stats minimized).
   
   • Flynn uses his only Amrita Shower item to clear the nasty ailments.  Isabeau passes turn, Johnathan concentrates, Walter dekunda’s away the debuff curse.  Flynn uses Godslayer’s sword (ice resist down), and Isabeau heals everyone.
   
   
7. • 7th turn, YHVH Divine Harmony’s away all our buffs (this includes doping and concentrate), instant kills Mot AGAIN with Mouth of God, and reapplies Infinite Power.
   
   • Siddhartha summons Mastema for magaon.  Krishna uses a dekaja stone to clear YHVH’s buffs, Inanna concentrates, Mastema uses magaon.  Navarre dopes.
   
   
8. • 8th turn, YHVH wipes out Flynn’s party with Crush and Supernova followed by Rampage!  
   
   • Flynn has a one time revive to full HP, and can revive Walter to full HP too, but that ends the turn, making things look VERY BAD.
   
   
9. • 9th turn, YHVH does the same to Siddhartha’s party.  Siddhartha hangs on, but once again it looks grim.  
   
   • I summon Odin to get a second turn he can use, and Odin uses a summon stone to bring in Shiva.  Navarre debilitates.
   
   
10. •  Random status spam, the secret weapon of every OP JRPG boss...
    10th turn YHVH uses Crush, then Planned Chaos (panics both party members), and then uses Infinite Power.  That’s game right there, as Flynn’s party loses its entire turn, and then YHVH unleashes a smirked, maximum stats Supernova at Siddhartha’s team, killing everyone.
    

At the gates to the afterlife, Dagda mocks me for having failed, saying this is what I get for depending on something as weak as humanity.  Siddhartha's soul plummets to Hell, where s/he will be tortured until the Axiom forces him/her to reincarnate.  Yet that new life will not be a second chance, as God will never forget Siddhartha's attempted deicide. 

The Conclusion:

So, in the end, I couldn’t overcome God in this single, blind attempt.  My big mistakes were 1) not buffing Flynn’s party on turn 6, 2) not debuffing YHVH on turn 7, enabling him to wipe out Flynn’s team on the next turn with Supernova, and 3) Being too defensive, taking too long to full up full buff/debuff stacks that just got wiped away (I should have settled for a survivable +2/-2 and then attacked with Siddhartha and/or Inanna).  MP was an issue here, as Inanna was too low to use her debilitate, though I blame that on the somewhat bullshit scripted MP drain in the first phase.  I could have passed her turn, had Mastema Magaon, had Siddhartha pass turn, and Krishna debilitate though.  I do dislike that Walter is the dekunda user on Flynn’s team, because he’s terribly slow and that made it very hard to remove the debuffs, then buff, and then heal the party.  I could have had Johnathan use a bead chain instead of concentrating though, and then Isabeau could have Luster Candy’d.

Another big mistake was not having someone out to use Imposing Stance (should have swapped Inanna to Shiva, though both have it Inanna was too low after the drain).  That could have been a lifesaver, as the AI selects its move order before the turn is removed.  This would prevent most uses of Divine Harmony on Siddhartha’s party, for example, as God almost always uses that first in a turn.  I will say, I also dislike how much the battle seems to rely on getting lucky results from Flynn’s Godslayer Sword (need two reductions of same element to create a weakness), at least for Flynn’s party where no one has pierce and their entire team needs to attack in a turn to equal Siddhartha’s damage output alone. 

However, in another timeline a more fortunate Siddhartha was able to overcome fate!  It took four tries, but I did bring down YHVH's second form and beat the game, reloading from the same save as the initial attempt with no changes to party composition/pre-battle healing etc.  I even tried to not deliberately swap out party members to dodge the scripted MP drain, though tellingly I wound up partially doing so on the winning run (Krishna got branded early on in the first form and had to be switched out to safety).  So the fight was possible in the state I arrived at the final battle in, it was just tactical mistakes that laid me low.  

While I didn't save many pictures from that successful run, I remember the broad strokes well enough that I could do an epilogue if people want it (I could also attempt to redo the fight again to get screenshots).  I actually learned a lot more about the fight in the subsequent attempts; God has moves he never used in the first try and some of the moves have secondary effects that never popped up (for example, Unending Curse has a slight chance to seal party members!).  One thing I will say here is that Imposing Stance really is a gamechanger, as I thought it'd be.

[Dp101]

That boss is truly worthy of the name. How many different ways to drop stats can they pack into one enemy? I would like to see the epilogue, if only to see how you solved the game.

[RifleAvenger]

Epilogue:

Unwinding Fate's Threads:

Siddhartha's long struggle against God ultimately proved futile, buying Siddhartha naught but external damnation.  However, there is more than one world in Shin Megami Tensei, more than one timeline in which to set things right...

That is, to say, with the official report over I was free to die, reload, and try again as much as I like .  Since at least one person wants to know how I ultimately overcame God, I'll share that here.  

To reiterate from my conclusion to the run proper, my first successful attempt was a direct reload from a save before the final boss fight on the initial run, so I didn't leave the dungeon, heal, use any different items, fuse/summon different demons/change movesets, etc.  I even tried to keep the same original party in for the scripted MP drain despite it being a far smarter idea to throw in some poor unfortunates to take the hit instead.  No, my goal was to see if the second stage of the fight was winnable in roughly the same condition as I originally entered it.

There were two additional failed attempts between the first and my successful attempt.  Both ended in roughly the same way, with Flynn's party getting wrecked and subsequently unable to successfully disarm YHVH of his buffs/smirk after he uses Infinite Power .  At first, I was pretty perplexed as to why it kept happening that way; Flynn's party lacks access to Doping, but their HP totals are relatively equal to Krishna/Inanna's Doped HP totals.  Ultimately I realized it was because it was primarily three reasons.  

1. Flynn's party has a hard time buffing itself.  Only Isabeau has any sort of stat buff (fortunately it is Luster Candy), and surprisingly little affinity for support moves making the spell cost a lot of MP.  Siddhartha's party, on the other hand, has two members almost always in the active party (Siddhartha and Krishna) who have a Luster Candy equivalent at maximum affinity for cheap castings.  Navarre constantly throwing out buffing spells for free also helps.
   
2. All of Siddhartha's debuff users or equivalents were either the ones usually caught in the 1st form MP drain (Krishna, Inanna, Mot w/ Anticthon), or too underleveled/low-HP to stand up in the fight (Lakshmi).  This meant that as the fight progressed, Siddhartha's team became far less likely to debuff YHVH in a turn.
   
3. Flynn's team lacks the flexibility to deal with a dangerous situation, like Isabeau and Johnathan getting killed in a round and then YHVH uses infinite power.  In that situation, Flynn's team CANNOT both dekaja and magaon, because only two press turns are available and a turn has to be used to revive Johnathan.  Siddhartha's team, on the other hand, can Dekaja on multiple members via items and swap in Mastema for Magaon anytime.  Even if Siddhartha starts the turn two members down Infinite Power can be fully dealt with.  Also, no one on Flynn's team Nulls Physical or better, meaning they lack the only elemental resistance that works in this fight.
   

The buffs and debuffs matter: I had to at least get to +2/-1 or +1/-2 on both teams, preferably +2/-2 or more to account for critical hits, for every party member to survive any combination of attacks.  Not being able to reliably get that was a pretty rough situation to be in, solvable in only three ways.  (Imposing Stance doesn't even figure in here, because it only strips moves off of YHVH going into Siddhartha's turn, and Flynn's team has no access to the move.)

1. The first was to play smartly around the 1st form MP drain by removing important party members prior to it and resummoning them later.  This would ensure I'd have the MP for Debilitates and Anticthon's in phase 2.  I felt this would cheat trying to redo the final run though; improving my general tactics in one thing, but the MP drain is a fight specific event I had no way to know about going into the fight.
   
2. The second was for Flynn's party to die.   Cold, yes, but Flynn's party was more of hindrance than a help in phase 2!  
   
3. Get very lucky with 2nd form's move selections.
   

Let me explain option 2. Flynn's party needs to attack in concert to equal Siddhartha's concentrated damage output alone, and cannot do that until later in the fight after enough Godslayer Sword resistance drops have accumulated.  By then, YHVH is probably using his nastier moves that require immediate response.  Flynn's party cannot recover well from losing members, at least not in time to save Siddhartha's team from an Infinite Powered Supernova.  Ultimately, Flynn's party utterly lacks in any form of redundancy, which is bad because it kills the ability of his team to respond flexibly to problems.  If his party crumbles, it results in Siddhartha's death.  Worse still, Flynn's party also lacks AI partner support, meaning straight up one less action per round AND causing my Partner Assault meter to build more slowly!

So I decided, on my 4th attempt, to have Flynn take a dive for the greater good . The hard part would be getting Flynn's party to actually be wiped, lest YHVH immediately kill Siddhartha's team thereafter, because Flynn has a revive to full HP once per battle ability.  I also wanted to wait until 2nd form to do it, because Flynn's team is actually very helpful in the 1st form.


Fighting Fate:

Apologies for the lack of images this time.  

The actual attempt was pretty messy, I actually didn't think it was going to be successful.  1st phase was the worst I'd ever handled it, in part because God pulled out some new tricks.  More frequent use of the piercing elemental spells, Holy Stigmata (inflicts and ailment called Brand that prevents healing), using Divine Harmony in 1st phase, Planned Chaos, and a move I'd never seen before (Divine Authority) that acted as an Imposing Stance that removed three press turns!  However, in one way these problems generated a positive: Krishna got Branded early on in the fight and had to be pulled out until I could get a partner assault (betting on him shaking the status off naturally over the free turns).  This means he missed getting his MP drained, and the Brand got removed automatically during the form change.

Form 2 arrived, and I smartly swapped the out of MP Mot immediately for Shiva instead (keeping a high-power physical resist in play).  Then I began my plan to have Flynn's team take a dirt nap.  Essentially, I first had to wipe out Flynn's auto-revive, so that he could die with the rest of his team.  I accomplished this by having Flynn's team rely on single target heals to everyone except Flynn in the early, easier parts of Phase 2.  After Flynn died and revived, I just played the fight as normal until YHVH used Infinite Power going into Siddhartha's turn.  I simply failed to dispel his buffs, focusing instead on building up my own with Siddhartha/Krishna, Shiva passed turn, and having Inanna/Siddhartha concentrate (Inanna was kept in because, despite her low MP post-drain, she had a few good strong offensive castings left in her).  Predictably, a maximum power Supernova eliminated Flynn's team, which also ended YHVH's turn.

With that out of the way, I removed YHVH's buffs with a Dekaja stone (the smirk was used up in the Supernova, so I didn't even need to Magaon!), passed Krishna's turn, had Inanna cast a spell against a resistance Flynn had lived long enough to remove, had Shiva imposing stance, and Siddhartha unleashed his/her attack.

From there, I got into a pattern of taking care of immediate threats (Infinite Power, Unending Curse, Planned Chaos' aftermath) while otherwise alternating between charging/attacking with Siddhartha, supporting or sneaking in attacks with other party members, and ALWAYS making sure Shiva stripped a turn off with Imposing Stance.  Imposing Stance worked wonders; because of how YHVH prefers to use his turns, Imposing Stance countered every attempted usage of Divine Harmony  .  One Unending Curse still got through, but that meant I still got to keep Doping, Concentrate, etc. and only had to build back Luster Candy stacks.  It also probably blocked a lot of Supernovas and Planned Chaos.  Even better, sometimes the second move attempted was physical and hit a resistance or flat out missed, taking away the remainder of YHVH's moves for that round.

There were still some scary moments.  As the fight went on YHVH made his move selection even deadlier, the worst thing actually being the addition of a MP draining move called Black Hole.  I lost Krishna and Inanna in one round to a Mouth of God instant kill followed by a critical Crush followed by Supernova.  Another time Seraph (brought in to replace Inanna, who wasn't worth reviving at that point) died and YHVH infinite powered, leaving me down a press turn.  Yet I still recovered because of my team's flexibility, stripping the buffs, reviving and resummoning Seraph, and weathering the smirked Rampage next turn (glad I didn't imposing stance that time, since the rampage hit Shiva's Drain Physical head on).

The last big scare came when Krishna went out of MP, taking away my last debilitator (I swapped in Odin for continued use of items w/ healing-knowhow on a bulkier body w/ superior physical resistance), and Shiva was low on MP so my turns of Imposing Stance were numbered.  The "Betray Flynn" strat worked out again for me here though, with the extra turns Navarre was getting earning me a second Partner Assault.  The free turn of damage brought YHVH near death, and an energy drain (of all things...  ) to restore MP next turn  finished him off.

After that, I enjoyed the ending:




As aspects of their creator, Satan and the other angels fade from existence, but not before promising that if and when His return is needed, God shall return "as the Father and Savior He was always meant to be."  Johnathan and Walter pass on as well, saying they do not regret the choices they made in life, but wish the best for Flynn and Co. in the world we've won for mankind.  The world deities I employed also pledge to offer mankind a hand if called upon, though I make it VERY CLEAR that so long as our contracts stand, I'll be determining the nature of that help!  Dagda is restored to full power by his mother Danu, and begrudgingly admits that I did well for myself.  As a reward, he declares his contract with Siddhartha complete, giving our gender indeterminant hero a real second life instead of being a divinely animated corpse.  All the human party members go their separate ways, but not before promising to help build mankind's new future together.

All's Well that Ends Well! Well, except for those three Siddharthas that got sent to hell.   


Final Comments

Overall, discounting the Protagonist, Krishna was MVP for boss battles.  I'll let the two energy draining angels, Odin, and Set share the MVP award for exploration.  Energy Drain, Imposing Stance, Awakened Power (for omni-elemental pierce on Siddhartha), and Partner Assault were utterly key to what successes I did have on the run and in pursuing ultimate victory after it.  Honestly, I still wonder why you get Awakened Power on this ending route.  It fits better on Dagda's route and provides something to make up for losing almost every single AI partner and the ability to partner assault (because you killed all your friends).

The killing Flynn strategy is not needed or even advised if entering the fight as full HP/MP, as was probably the intended way of doing the fight.  It was only needed here because of my debilitators running out of MP (not going in at full thanks to ironcore setup combined with having all of them in for the MP drain).

Well, that's it for Shin Megami Tensei 4 Apocalypse!  I hope you've enjoyed my report.  Please give whatever feedback you wish, positive and negative, since I plan to do additional reports in the future if people are interested.  My current leanings are either the "Lawful Stupid" variant of SMT 4 (which unfortunately would likely mean blurry camera screenshots again), or a variant of any Etrian Odyssey game where the users here at Realms Beyond make my party and I have to deal with it for better or worse.

Thank you for reading!

[RefSteel]

Thanks for writing this up, RifleAvenger! I think it's hilarious that a critical part of the strategy for defeating God is to make sure someone assumes a really imposing stance all the time!

As for future events, I'm not familiar with Etrian Odyssey, so if I were helping to choose your party, it would be based on "that sounds like a funny name" or "oooh, what neat-looking sprite!" but whether you do that or go back to the background of this game (or both) I am definitely of the opinion that More Reports Posted at RB = Good!

Or, wait, no, this is a Shin Megami Tensei report. From what you've described of the game, make that: More Reports = True Neutral!!