Shin Megami Tensei 4 Apocalypse: Kill God or Die Trying

[RifleAvenger]

Hello everyone, my (user)name is RifleAvenger, and I've really enjoyed lurking Realms Beyond for the past few months.  So much so, in fact, that I'm going to try my hand at giving a report on the finale of my play-through of Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse.  Specifically, I'm attempting a blind ironcore run of the game's final area and bosses.  This may be a bit odd and even disorienting, as I'm starting this report at the end of the game!  However, what I'm really trying to do is get practice at this sort of thing, in order to prepare for a full variant play-through and report of the original SMT 4 (Apocalypse is actually a full sequel, an SMT 4-2 if you will).

However, before we get to the report, I feel I need to give some quick background information on the Megami Tensei franchise, the nature of modern (post 2003) Shin Megami Tensei games, and mechanics specific to SMT 4 and SMT 4 Apocalypse.  If you already know this stuff or don't care, skip on down to the next part of the post!

A Very Brief History of Megami Tensei

 The Megami Tensei series of games had its first launch September 11 of 1987 with Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, meaning it's slightly older than Final Fantasy!  This first game was a very loose adaptation of the light novel series Digital Devil Story.  It was a first person dungeon crawler with turn based combat, a trait every game in the series would retain until the late 90's early 2000's.  Notably, even this first game featured the ability to negotiate and recruit the demons and gods that make up most of the games' enemies, as well as the ability to fuse them into stronger entities.  Megami Tensei would go on to be one the Big Three Japanese RPG series alongside Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.  However, unlike the other two series, very few of the games made it to North America (unsure about Europe) until after the 2000's.  This is probably because of the whole "negotiating and summoning demons" thing combined with the Abrahamic God being a frequent antagonist in the series.

Future installments through the rest of the 80's and 90's (including the first SHIN Megami Tensei) kept to the first's blueprint while adding things like multiple endings and the overarching themes of the series.  These themes include the eternal battle of Law and Chaos, the struggles of those caught in between to stay afloat (and often the rightness of finding the middle path), and the paradoxical strength and weakness of humans and humanism.  This is a series where solo runs are nearly impossible, where you must rely on your party to survive; however, your divine and demonic allies constantly manipulate you while your human friendships are strained or even break, normally violently and tragically.  Eventually, offshoots of the series took their own ideas in their own directions (the Persona series is a great example of this), but ATLUS kept making essentially the same games, seemingly unaffected by the flash and pomp much of the rest of the JRPG genre was embracing post FF7.

Then came SMT 3, what we knew here as SMT: Nocturne.  Nocturne broke with the first person view and sprites in favor of third person and 3D models (though still elegantly stylized, the game's art stands up to this day), but its more important break was the introduction of the press-turn system.  Every SMT game after Nocturne uses this system, even most of the spin-offs (including Persona) use some modification of it, and knowing how it works is essential to understanding combat in SMT. 

The Press Turn System:

Here's the basics of the Press Turn System:

[*]The player and the enemy have separate sets of turns (a turn here = one action).  One side takes all of its turns, and then the other goes.
[*]Each side has a number of turns equal to the number of active party members in it.  Powerful enemies and sometimes the player are exceptions.
[*]Hitting an opponent's weakness or getting a critical hit transforms one of your turns into an "extra turn."

• Extra turns cannot become additional extra turns, so at most you can double your actions per turn this way.
  
• You can pass a turn from one party member to the next.  This gives an extra turn if you have none, but consumes an extra turn if you have any.
  

[*]Missing an attack (except ailments) or hitting an opponent with an attack they are immune to (including ailments) makes you lose two press turns.

• Hitting an absorb or reflect damage resistance makes you lose ALL of your turns, ending your round immediately.
  

[*] These rules apply to both you and the enemy. 

As such, the press turn system makes battles in SMT a game of momentum.  You want to consistently hit enemy weaknesses to gain turns, while having the opponent hit your resistances, miss, or be disabled by status ailments to lose theirs.  One bad party composition, tactical misstep, or risky gamble can kill the player even when fighting regular mobs, as all enemies can snowball the same way as the player given the chance.  Overly defensive play gives up the ability to gain additional turns, and strong HP and MP restoring items are very rare to put the player on a clock (can't keep healing forever).  However, the game is tuned such that, past the very beginning, the raw numbers of damage and HP are slanted against the player.  Offense is king in SMT, but healing and support skills are essential to buy the player the time they need to win.

Shin Megami Tensei 4 Specific Mechanics

SMT 4 plays much the same as Nocturne, with a few exceptions.  First off, unlike Nocturne (and many older SMT's) the game does not end when the protagonist dies.  The entire active party must be wiped out to lose. However, if you don't teach your demons one of two very rare skills you cannot summon or switch out party members while the protagonist is dead, putting you in tight spot nonetheless.  

Secondly, the protagonist does not learn skills from leveling up.  Rather, when a demon learns its final skill, you can choose to pass any of its known skills on to the player except for passive abilities (if the player character has no empty skill slots, you may replace an existing one).  Passing on a skill the protagonist already knows instead cheapens the MP cost for that skill when used by the protagonist.  

Third, the unique magatama system of Nocturne is replaced by equipped gear, handling stat bonuses and resistances.

Fourth, physical skills use MP in SMT 4/4A, whereas they consumed HP in Nocturne.

Fifth is that SMT 4 does away with random encounters, though on map encounter can ambush you or sometimes spawn directly under you.

Sixth is the app system, which is unique to the SMT 4 games and lets you customize your character in various ways.  The additional skill slot apps are sadly a near must buy which eat up a lot of app points, but beyond those there are a wide variety of choices to be made, from raising the level cap on demon fusion to apps which facilitate a diplomacy heavy play style.  There are even challenge mode apps, like bringing back the "instant game over if the protagonists dies" mechanic.

Seventh is the smirk status , which furthers the momentum based nature of the press turn system.  Whenever a character takes an action or has one performed on them that either gives their team press turns or takes them from the enemy, they have a chance to smirk.  The player or enemies may also gain smirk at the start of a fight if they score a blindside.  Smirking differs between 4 and 4:A, to prevent confusion I will only detail how it works in the latter.  

A smirking character has their weaknesses converted to normal resistances while smirking, their next hit is always a critical hit, actions with variable numerical effects always use the maximum values (like maximize spell in DnD), and some skills have additional effects when used while smirking.  Smirk is lost either two turns after it is gained or after the smirking character attacks, so it cannot be used to negate weaknesses forever.  A character cannot smirk when afflicted by a status ailment, and smirk is removed should a smirking character be inflicted with an ailment.  Some skills can forcibly grant or remove smirk with 100% odds. 

So yeah, that's enough of that, on to the game!  As I said before, this report will cover my attempt to beat the final dungeon of the game blind, without retreating, without reloading after a death (or taking Dagda's free do-overs) , and without any excessive grinding of any kind.  Though I am already quite high level with high level party members going into the dungeon (it wasn't an ironcore 'til now, this is partly my attempt to redeem the game's difficulty after a lot of grinding to get my favorite gods and angels), the enemies in here go up to and even beyond the level cap of 99.  The no grinding rule is more so that I don't grind demons to get specific skills before a boss fight, or abuse negotiation options to fish for specific items or macca for buying fresh demons from my compendium.  If I lose, the report ends there (though I will finish the game on my own).  


I'm playing the game on War (Hard) difficulty, as that's what I've been doing all game.  Conflict (Normal) would make this a cakewalk, whereas Apocalypse (WTF Hard) would make this challenge impossible for my skill level (I might be able beat the game on it, but I'd need to further optimize my party and retreat to heal after any major fights).

I've banned any skills that passively restore MP, like Victory Cry or Chakra Walk, as they would trivialize resource management.  The apps that do similar things, such as the one that restores full HP/MP on level ups, are also banned for this reason.  The app that makes enemies of lower level than myself not engage is also disallowed.  Energy/Spirit Drain are allowed, since I have to give up other actions to use them in combat, and with the no grinding rule I cannot farm easy encounters to top myself off.  I've allowed myself one use from each healing station I might find in the dungeon, and only prior to finding another one, but I'd prefer not to use them if possible.  They're a last resort to be used if I think I vastly underestimated the length/rigor of the final dungeon.

Also, apologies in advance.  From here on out, the pictures get pretty blurry.  It's a 3DS game, and I don't have the equipment to get it hooked up to my PC for clearer shots, so I'm literally just snapping photos of my screen.  The results are sadly predictable.

The Sloppy Cliffnotes on the Backstory You've Missed

 To get anyone who cares up to speed, I am playing as Siddhartha (player chosen name, default is Nanashi), an androgynous youth living in apocalyptic Tokyo.  25 years ago some nasty experiments released all sorts of supernatural creatures into the world, which God took exception to and nuked the entire planet for.  Tokyo survived the nukes when its guardian deity Masakado turned into a giant stone dome, but that also trapped Tokyo underground with all the demons.  Siddhartha yearns to be a hunter and fight back against the gods and demons plaguing mankind, but gets horribly murdered at the start of the game before accomplishing much of anything.  A god named Dagda offers to return me to life if I'll be his Godslayer and generally do his bidding.  I accept, and with his boons grow in power and prestige as a hunter.

Along the way I accidentally release a bunch of world religion deities with an axe to grind against God, get the player character of the original SMT 4 kidnapped, learn that Dagda is not a people person, and proceed to kill every angel, demon, and god in my path.  Eventually I kill Dagda too, because I disagree with his stance on other people being allowed to exist (his opinion is that they shouldn't).  Though Tokyo is finally at peace, SMT's native Stephen Hawking expy informs me that God Himself is still out there and will never stop meddling in mankind's business (seeing as He believes it to be His business).  So I get all my friends, human and divine/demonic alike together, and we decide to go kill God like any self-respecting JRPG heroes.

Those Who Stand Against God

Time to introduce our merry band.  Up first is Siddhartha, the protagonist.

Don't let the bars fool you, they only scale up to 200, but Siddhartha's magic is nearly 420  .  Also built with enough agility to always move first on my turn (more likely to act multiple times a turn as a result) and up my hit/evasion (since I use magic, which has high natural accuracy, I almost never miss esp. after buffs/debuffs).  Luck increases critical chance, makes me less likely to be crit, grants me a little ailment resistance, and tilts damage rolls in my favor slightly, among countless other small effects.  Strength and Dexterity only influence melee and gun attacks respectively, and so are dump stats for my magic inclined character.  My current gear gives me resistance to physical attacks and the dreaded light/dark attacks (which can instant kill when user smirks).  I cover the other elements with the rest of my team's resistances.

Siddhartha's moves, a mix of offensive and support magic.  Ice age and judgement light are single target and multiple target severe damage spells respectively.  Energy drain prevents me from running out of MP and heals my HP, but its offensive power is low and it takes several turns to refill my MP.  Concentrate makes my next magic attack do 2.5x damage, meaning it's better in terms of damage per turn and MP economy.  Doping raises the party's max HP during battle.  Luster Candy is an all party buff spell that raises Phys/Magic Attack, Defense, and Hit/Evasion, and stacks up to 3 times.  Salvation is full party heal that also cures ailments when smirking (one of the only smirk abilities I dislike, if I'm status'd I cant get smirk to cure myself!  Old salvation didn't require smirk, but its high MP cost balanced it out versus less comprehensive alternatives).  Awakened Power gives me pierce (ignores all resistances except reflect, but pierce is glitched in this game and goes through reflect too) and a sizable flat damage bonus; frankly it's OP and I don't understand why I get this ability when I'm not on Dagda's ending route.  The ability to directly command and switch between my human helpers in battle would fit much better.

For my app selections, I've got the must have demon fusion, map, demon weakness analysis, and skill slot boosters for myself and my demons.  I also have fusion level limit +15 (something I did very early in the game to get ahead of the power curve), 7 additional reserve party slots, 20% off buying demons from my compendium (lets you buy back demons you've previously contracted with), and a lot of apps for negotiation skills.  This latter group includes nearly all of the scout (recruitment) tree, truce for dealing with the very low odds of running above normal difficulty, fundraise (needed to clear a sidequest, otherwise a waste of points), a heavy investment in trade to get rare items, an experience boost for winning encounters diplomatically, and both Demon Charmer AND Threatening Aura to play good-cop/bad-cop.

Next up is Shiva, the god of destruction and rebirth, at maximum level.  Shiva hits single targets like a truck with physical attacks, and Akasha Arts can pierce if he's smirking.  He drains Phys, Fire, and Lightning, and is immune to mind status ailments with no weaknesses.  I also gave him Tetrakarn (grants party phys reflect for one turn) and Imposing Stance (User cannot make further moves this turn, reduces enemy press turns by 1) for support.  A very strong ally, whose only weakness is a lack of coverage and no smile charge for guaranteed pierce.

Krishna, Vishnu's avatar and the main antagonist of the game until recently.  His plan to stop God involved creating a new universe where all are one, whereas I introduced him to my plan of peace through superior firepower and a katana through the gut.  One backtrack to where I originally met him and a brief conversation later, and he came around to seeing things my way.  A magic build like me, Krishna actually has only a single attacking move and poor resistances.  However, he is still one of my strongest party members, carrying an all around buff, an all around debuff, doping, a spell that revives and summons an ally (meaning he can take over summoning duty if I fall), and the absurdly good ability to use healing and supporting items to essentially have any healing/support ability at his fingertips (normally only the protagonist can use items).  He also has a status ailment spell that inflicts every mind ailment while lowering enemy defense (he has one that inflicts poison/sick/bind too, but I had him forget it before coming in here).  His only downsides are his crap resistances, below average HP, and having no way to regen his MP beyond a few precious items.

Mastema, a very sketchy angel.  Repels four elements while only being weak to one.  He has the same offensive spells as Siddhartha, including energy drain, but also has passive abilities that greatly increase ice and light damage.  However, he lacks natural pierce and has Smile Charge in place of concentrate.  To round out his smirk happy nature, I gave him the support spell Magaon, which removes smirk from the enemy.

Another angel I've somehow shanghai'd into fighting God.  Seraph is basically Mastema, but with more (weaker) resistances, weak to a different element, and has Fire and Gun attacks in addition to Judgement Light and Energy Drain (but no Ice).  Carries Salvation in place of Magaon in the support/healing slot.

SMT's God is basically the demiurge, so I'm pretty perplexed by this guy being willing to help me.  Anyways, Demiurge is a mixed bag.  He has the crazy powerful Anticthon spell that is severe almighty damage plus debilitate to all foes, but anticthon now requires smirk for the additional effect and is super MP expensive.  Worse yet, Demiurge has shit MP and no way of recovering his MP.  He'll likely only be good for a single battle.  He'll be REALLY GOOD for that battle, but that'll be it.  He does also have the Lightning God's single target spell, which isn't as MP hungry.

Inanna, Mother of All, was part of Krishna's Divine Power's faction.  Her role, to continuously given birth to new gods (and rebirth ones demonized by God) to supply the Divine Powers with an army and make themselves invincible.  Until I defeated her and forced her to join me that is.  Inanna has superb elemental coverage with low cost severe fire/ice/force/lightning spells and concentrate to power them up (these unique spells do come with the cost of making her weak to the opposing element after use).  She also has debilitate and imposing stance for support, and a LOT of MP to make use of.  Beyond the downsides to her elemental spells, her only other glaring issue is her shitty, shitty HP.  Without doping applied she risks dying even when max buff/debuff stacks are applied against tough encounters.

Another member of the Divine Powers I've beaten and later recruited.  Odin is honestly not one of my stronger gods.  However, he has the useful ability to use items, a phys move that pierces without smirk, some decent lightning attacks (Thunder Reign would be great if it could pierce, but alas it cannot), and the outdated but still useful ability to lower enemy defense (and only defense).  He's also got a repel gun resistance, which is rare and might come in handy.  Since he's not boss fight material, he'll actually get used a lot to help clear mobs.

The Egyptian god of storms, deserts, and foreigners, Set is a character I really, really like in the series, but his appearance here will not be very glorious.  Set is on trash mob duty, pure and simple.  He has greatly increased force damage, but this is undercut by his best spell is only heavy damage and low magic stat.  His strength is decent and Rending Claws is a good move, but without pierce too many enemies resist physical at this point in the game.  He has Luster Candy and Makarakarn (reflect all non-almighty magic for one turn) and a passive ability that amps his hit/evade rate, but lacks the MP to keep up the support spells over a long fight.  What Set DOES have is a powerful auto-attack and the Makajamaon (seals/silences all enemies) spell + an affinity for ailments.  This lets him pound on random enemies for no MP and shut down any dangerous mobs/bad situations.

The Japanese creator goddess who died and became a death goddess.  Izanami is here for one reason; she is the only party member I have with decent magic who possesses a powerful Dark elemental attack.  My only other access to the element with this party is using Mudoon stones with the protagonist.  She carries Thunder Gods for additional elemental coverage, as well as concentrate AND smile charge to pump her damage and proc extra effects.  Also carries a full party healing spell and spell that grants immunity to a single light or dark spell to each member of the party.  Poor HP though.

Those present but not shown include:

• Mara, a physically inclined attacker with a unique multi-hitting physical move that does great damage and lowers defense when smirking.  Has charge AND smile charge, much like Izanami but for physical.  Also has an all hitting charm spell and Thunder Gods for coverage.  Not depicted because his/her design looks a LOT like a dick.
  
• Mitra-Buddha, the last of the major Divine Power's bosses I previously defeated.  Honestly, really disappointing.  Sky high attacking stats, but pitiful, pitiful MP and all of his moves are MP expensive.  Has two weakness, unheard of for this point in the game, likely to proc his (not yet learned) unique ability that boosts all his stats when hit by something he's weak to.  However, that's not even a good ability, since he'll still take a lot of damage and it can't go higher than the usual limit of 3 stacks of buff.  He might be able to power through one fight to earn his keep, much like Demiurge.
  
• Huang Di, the Yellow Emperor, has Demiurge/Mitra's issue of having jack all for MP while possessing some of the strongest, most MP expensive moves in the game.  Unlike the others, this isn't my fault; as a famed, he resulted from a fusion accident, meaning I had no control over his skills.  Unlike Demi and Mitra, Huang has a good mix of attack and support skills including four different attacking elements, Salvation, and Luster Candy.  Like the others in his situation, he'll be good for one boss battle.
  
• Throne, an angel 30 levels below the average party member that will act as an out of battle heal-bot to conserve other's MP and items.  Knows a revive spell, an ailment healing spell, and an all party healing spell.
  
• Vetala, a random crappy demon along for the ride.  Will probably get]no use unless I'm desperate.
  

[*]



Besides the gods and demons, since I turned down Dagda's "kill everyone" plan I also have human allies backing me up.  Unlike my supernatural zoo, I cannot control them directly, they act on their own for better and for worse.  Luckily, they're pretty smart for the most part.  I'll mostly be using Hallelujah (high offense magic user who can also grant an endure effect to the party or preemptively ward against ailments) and Isabeau (jack of all trades who can attack with any element, heal, and buff, but not as well as any of the others).

[RifleAvenger]

So I answer Not-Stephan Hawking's summons to the center of Ginza, and he creates a massive monolith that serves as a teleporter to the plane of existence God resides in.  At this point, Flynn, the original SMT 4's protagonist, steps up and offers his assistance.  Sadly, he won't be a real party member or even AI partner.  Instead, he can tie up enemy mobs in the final dungeon for you, free you from traps if he's not occupied, and grants you the use of the Messiah Blast (severe almighty damage to all foes) skill in battle when the protagonist is smirking.  Sadly, Messiah Blast is a terrible moves because it uses Flynn's stats instead of yours, meaning any proper STR/DEX/MAG build with awakened power can do more damage with other moves.  It might be useful for a "red mage" type build that invests in multiple offensive stats or something crazy like a pure agility and/or luck build.

At this point I decide to finish up the last of the sidequests, including the horrid "use fundraise to earn 50000 macca from demon negotiations" one.  Long story short, fundraise is an awful way to earn macca, cleanly beaten out by making relic runs through the Bay Area or using Scout with the Scout Bonus app (receive a good chunk of macca from demons you successfully recruit).  I am rewarded with the Master's Suit equipment for completing every side quest, which is responsible for the physical and light/dark resistances seen on the protagonist in the previous post.  There are better armors for sale at the Members Only market, but they cost absurd amounts of macca and are good to the point of trivializing many encounters (one makes you resist every single element).

With all my unfinished business taken care of, I enter the monolith.  No going back now!  

God's Universe, 1st Brane

 

I emerge into a space that looks like floating islands of squares adrift in a false color image of a nebula.  And the square islands beneath my feet have stars and galaxies swirling inside them.  Not exactly what I expected of Heaven!

My initial active party consists of Siddhartha, Odin, Seraph, and Set.  Siddhartha is required to be there and can both attack and support with energy drain to sustain MP.  Seraph is an attacker equipped with energy drain who will be responsible along with Siddhartha for taking out most random encounters, and I can switch to Mastema to the same effect with different elemental coverage.  Odin and Set both have good normal attacks (no MP cost) and some cheap powerful physical skills if needed.  Odin also has healing know-how for item access, letting him save the day if the protagonist falls or gets a status ailment.  Set has makajamaon and makarakarn for sealing or reflecting the skills of particularly nasty random encounters.  Furthermore, this party set up has at least one party member resistant or better to every element, with most of the weaknesses covered by a null or better on other party members.  This way, full party attacks at least won't give enemies extra press turns, though single target spells may still be a concern.

I move out.  A chest to the southwest of the entrance contained 2 magic mirrors and 2 chakra drops.  Way further in that direction blocked by a shortcut wall.  Chest in the Northwest has the Horns of Chaos legging armor, which is worse than what I'm wearing.  Also find a teleporter on the ground level (Brane E), and another teleporter (G) and a doorway © up some stairs.  The teleporters and door and circled in red in the above image.  Thankfully none of these are one way.  After taking a peek through each, I take the teleporter to Brane E.  Immediately I find another door to my right, this time a green one.

Oops, guess that’s what I get for min-maxxing.  Probably just extra loot, since I’ve got faith ATLUS wouldn’t make specific builds required for progression.  Not that I couldn’t use the loot!  Hopefully there are some magic based doors.  I walk down a brief series of narrow passages, before foolishly falling into a snare trap in front of a chest to the southwest of the green door.  I mash out of it before any enemies spawn and get a free blindside.  The chest has a small Agility and small Strength incense inside.  Backtracking to the earlier door to 1st Brane C leads swiftly to the wrong side of an inaccessible shortcut.


An example of the battles in here.  All the enemies are powered up palette swaps of Judeo-Christian demons encountered earlier in the game, some of them previously were boss encounters!  In these forms, most talk/negotiation options will NOT work and the enemy will never surrender.  However, against enemies that were common mobs earlier in the game the fundraise and trade negotiation options work just fine.  Fundraise is even more useless than normal in this situation, but trade could result in me getting strong healing/mana restoring or support items.  This seems like an oversight to me, but I’m just fine using it; there’s always the risk negotiation will go badly and screw me over, so it doesn’t break the rules. 

Overall the enemies here mostly aren’t too threatening.  Despite siding with their usual nemesis (the game has a good reason why the fallen angels are buddy-buddy with God again), most of these demons are still weak to light, and most of the others are weak to ice.  This means that Siddhartha + Seraph/Mastema rip them apart in 1-2 rounds, without Odin or Set having to use much MP.  When they run low on MP, I have them start to energy drain the mobs while Set attempts to lock the enemies down with the seal status ailment.

However, this example here shows how fast things can go downhill in SMT if you get careless!  I preemptive strike this group, but can’t kill them in one round with the protagonist and Seraph alone (so I have Siddhartha concentrate instead).  Odin is smirked, so I have him use thunder reign thinking I’ll get a meaty crit and finish off the encounter after I pass Set’s turn to the charged Siddhartha.  But two of the enemies reflect lightning!  Odin dies instantly to the backlash, the one non-immune enemy doesn’t die, my turn immediately ends, and the two enemies that reflected smirk!  On their turn, one smirked foe hits my party with mamudoon, an all hit dark attack that has a 55% chance of inflicting instant death when the user smirks.  Seraph bites the dust from the instant kill.

Fortunately, despite having disparaged him as an expendable before, Set saves the day here with his dark absorb resistance.  This ends the enemy turn then and there, instead of me facing down what would likely have been 4 further enemy moves (2 extra turns from the smirk auto-crits) and at least one more likely instant death attack from the smirking Barbatos.  If the protagonist had died here the run would likely have ended even if the final demon on my team had lived.

I promptly respond by summoning Krishna for a half-press turn (I’m down to 2 this turn!).  Krishna uses Invitation to revive and resummon Seraph.  Set manages to hit all the enemies with the seal status (which also strips the Barbatos of smirk).  Hallelujah decides to kill the Dantalion.  Rendered only able to do weak auto-attacks, the enemy is unable to continue the offensive, and I clean up next turn.  After having Throne revive Odin, I go back to playing it safe with future encounters.

Past that encounter I run into a green door that lets me through; not sure what stat I need to open it, if any, since it didn’t bring anything up.  Inside is the Horns of Chaos head piece and a relic (stuff that can be sold for macca) spawn; too bad it’s worse than the master’s gear I’m already wearing and I cannot leave the dungeon to sell the relics.  There's a lot of horde encounters in this room too, which is obnoxious.  Hordes have a VERY high chance of triggering reinforcements when defeated, and reinforcements have a chance of blindsiding you when they arrive.  They’re also impossible to negotiate with (though that matters less in this area) and are very difficult to run from even on normal, let alone hard.  These things are the bane of pacifist/diplomatic runs, and even here they pose a very real risk between taking a lot of MP to kill and the threat of the mid-battle blindsides.

Exiting the green door, I find another teleporter down a set of stairs, which teleports me to 1st Brane D.  Nearby is a door back to 1st Brane A, the entry area.  I break the shortcut and go back to Brane D.  A roundabout path to the south, then east, then back north leads me to yet another teleporter, which takes me to 1st Brane F.  There, I come face to face with a locked golden door.  Not going through there yet apparently.  The rest of Brane F contains more useless relics, and TWO green doors that require dexterity!  Geez, hope I’m not missing out on anything good in my attempt to optimize my build.  There’s also a teleporter back to Brane A.  There’s a new door right across from me where I've arrived in Brane A (SE corner).  I break the shortcut back to the entrance, and then go through the door.  This puts me in a different area of brane D, to no avail.  Looks like I’ve explored all the options here!

A particularly bad blindside encounter kills the protagonist.  Good thing this isn’t old style SMT or Apocalypse difficulty, in which case this’d be the end!  Odin revives the protagonist thanks to his healing-item knowhow, Set seals the enemies, and I get to enacting my revenge.  I then go back to that teleporter to Brane D I skipped over so long ago, taking me to Brane G.

Wouldn’t you know, a cutscene triggers and the ghost of Walter (SMT 4’s chaos aligned human party member, who gave his life to summon Lucifer) pops up to say hi.  Looks like I wasted a lot of time and effort going in the wrong direction all this time.  Walter says there’s still something he feels he needs to do, and Flynn is momentarily troubled before asking us to press on.  Right past the cutscene is a green door I can use, which takes me to Brane H.  A teleporter near the door leads back to Brane C, nothing to do there I head back.  I decide to explore the rest of Brane G before going on to H.  Strangely, going back through the green door takes me to Brane F!  After a lot of walking and encounters I get back to where I want to be.  There, I find a teleport checkpoint, followed by this: 

This is the demon that killed me and my mentors at the very beginning of the game!  After popping up in various places through the first half of the game (once even as an ally of convenience), I eventually got my revenge awhile ago.  Now the poor, flamboyant demon is just a random encounter, and I’m well equipped to get second helpings of just desserts on him over and over!  Ice Age versus his ice weakness makes short work of him.

The rest of the floor has yet ANOTHER dexterity green door and another inaccessible shining door, plus a teleporter to Brane C.  Brane C has the old shortcut back to Brane A (now opened), a teleport checkpoint (what’s the point of the manual shortcuts then?), useless relics, a teleporter to Brane H, and a door leading to Brane F.  I head to Brane H.  There I find another checkpoint teleporter, a chest with two revival beads, more relic spawns, lots of dead ends and encounters, and finally a door with the message “you sense an ominous presence ahead.”  At last, a midboss or boss!  Might even be the end of the 1st Brane!

Even with the map zoomed all the way out, I can’t show you the entire dungeon’s first floor, err Brane (though being floating islands with a teleporter maze doesn’t help).  Nothing compared to a proper dungeon crawler like Wizardry or Etrian Odyssey, or even past SMT’s, but it’s VERY big and involved for the SMT 4 duology.

Brane 1 Boss Battle

 

Here’s an overview of everyone’s health and mana.  The three attackers with energy drain (Siddhartha, Mastema, and Seraph) are doing just fine, or will be able to get back to full.  Energy drain makes this challenge much, much easier, but not trivial.  I need to spend turns using it instead of stronger attacks, dragging out fights and thus incurring risk and HP damage that someone needs to cure or use items on.  Furthermore, I made sure not everyone has it, and many of my support demons are just as if not more important than my attackers in boss fights!  Krishna and Mitra are missing a little MP each from their singular appearances in battle up to now.  Odin and Set, on the other hand, are about down to half even with me trying to minimize their skill usage.  I suppose that means they’ve done their jobs though; most of the rest of the party is still at full MP and neither Odin nor Set are boss battle first or even second stringers.  Throne is nearly dry from being an out of battle healbot, plus coming into the dungeon at half MP to begin with (oops!).  Fortunately, he’s gained a few levels and has indicated he’ll evolve (get promoted?) to Cherub soon, which will reset his MP to full.  Very few demons evolve in this game, the generic angels being one of the only ones to do it extensively, and I made sure to take advantage of that trait with my out of battle healing slave buddy.

Going into the boss battle, I choose to lead with Huang Di, Mastema, and Inanna.  There’s probably a lot of dungeon to go, so I’d rather not field the big guns like Krishna yet.  Huang Di is cursed with low MP and high MP cost spells, and so along with Demiurge and Mitra will likely only be good for a single boss fight.  Mastema is a sustainable energy drain attacker, and I suspect this first boss will still be something chaos-related and thus likely light and ice weak.  Inanna provides support with debilitate and imposing stance, while packing a punch with great elemental coverage and concentrate.  I switch partners to Isabeau, since otherwise Siddhartha will have to cover healing on his/her own, cutting party damage by a lot more than is lost from sidelining Hallelujah.  Then I enter the door, ready to fight for my life.

Looks like Beelzebub and Lucifuge want a rematch.  That they’re acting like dolls instead now is no comfort: Lucifuge wiped me twice earlier in the game, and Beelzebub is often one of the nastiest recurring fights in the series (status spam and instant killed to status afflicted targets).  I don’t even know Beelzebub’s moveset, because earlier in the game he was restored to his status as Baal before fighting me.

1. • I begin by Doping my party to raise max HP, esp. for Inanna and her low HP total.  If Beelze is anything like his SMT 4 counterpart, he’ll have high power gun attacks in addition to the status spam, and my gun resists are low in number.  I may switch to Mara, but Odin is out of the question because Lucifuge uses force attacks, his weakness.  Huang Di Luster Candy’s to boost all our stats.  Inanna uses debilitate.  Mastema passes turn to Siddhartha, who uses Luster Candy.  Isabeau thankfully uses mediarama to top off our new HP totals.
   • Looks like the enemy are just midbosses; only two press turns between them.  Beezle uses debilitate to strip one stack of Luster Candy, while Lucifuge nearly drops Isa beau with a Deadly Wind.
   
2. • Siddhartha concentrates, time to go on the offense.  Inanna imposing stances to leave them only a single turn.  Huang Di uses Luster Candy again.  Mastema Smile Charges to gain smirk.  Isabeau full heals herself.
   • Imposing stance takes away Lucifuge’s turn.  Beezle hits us with Megidolaon (heavy almighty dmg to all), but the damage is negligible to everyone except Inanna (who is still above half).
   
3. • Siddhartha uses a concentrated Judgement Light to slam both enemies.  Beezle is weak to light, looks like this won’t be so bad.  Inanna uses Debilitate.  Huang passes turn.  Mastema uses Judgement Light.  Siddhartha concentrates.  Inanna uses concentrate too (I’m not afraid of their next moves now).  Huang passes to Mastema who smile charges.  Isabeau heals everyone to full.
   • Lucifuge uses mamudoon, but it misses Siddhartha and deals negligible damage to the rest of the party with no instant kill chance.  This loses the enemies’ second press turn.
   
4. • A concentrated judgement light takes out both bosses, EZ peezy!  BUT then Lucifer rises from the grave as a reinforcement!  My stat boosts are also sadly reset.   I go through the buff-debuff process again first turn, but energy drain instead of a second luster candy w/ Siddhartha, as my MP is low.  Isabeau heals.
   • Lucifer hits hard with the OBNOXIOUS evil gleam (heavy almighty to all, high chance to panic), panicking Huang and Siddhartha, following up with a hades blast (heavy melee to all) that nearly kills several party members and then debilitates away our buffs.
   
5. • I switch in Krishna to replace Inanna, who uses a Me Patra gem to cure the ailment.  Mastema energy drains.  Huang swaps out for Shiva.  If there was a time for heavy hitters, it’s now.  Siddhartha Luster Candies’ and hopes for the best.  Isabeau heals us.
   • Lucifer uses myriad arrows, but hits the gun resistant Siddhartha and the beefy Shiva.  Then he uses glacial blast, but all four hits strike the ice reflecting Mastema, ending Lucifer’s turn and giving Mastema a free smirk. 
   
6. • Siddhartha uses doping, and Krishna feeds him a chakra potion.  Shiva uses imposing stance.  Mastema uses Judgement Light, which Lucifer is weak to.  Sadly, he only does about 1000 damage given that I’ve only got one buff/debuff stack.  Siddhartha uses Luster Candy.  Isabeau heals (come on, we were barely missing any health!  Give me the third and final luster candy stack!)
   • Lucifer loses a turn to imposing stance, and uses Evil Gleam.  Minor damage, no one gets confused (Shiva is actually immune to mind effects) and Krishna dodges to steal Lucifer’s remaining move.
   
7. • Siddhartha concentrates.  Krishna uses Combat Tara (a less MP intensive Luster Candy).  Shiva uses Imposing Stance.  Mastema attacks with Judgement Light to grab another press turn.  Siddhartha unleashes his/her concentrated Judgement Light.  Isabeau heals.
   • Lucifer uses Kingly One (forces enemy demon to unsummon), sending Mastema back to the stock.  Annoying, but not too bad.  He wastes his remaining turn having Krishna dodge a bunch of weak gun attacks.
   
8. • I resummon Mastema, now shorn of buffs.  Krishna debilitates Lucifer.  Shiva uses Tetrakarn this time (betting on a phys or gun attack, big mistake!).  Mastema uses judgement light to grab a turn, Siddhartha uses it to concentrate.  Isabeau finally gives me the 3rd Luster Candy Stack.
   • Lucifer punishes my use of Tetrakarn with his big damage spell, Morning Star.  Even with the buffs and debuffs, it takes off half or more of everyone’s HP!  He follows up with an Evil Gleam, and for a moment I think it’s over.  Fortunately, no one is confused, the unbuffed/doped Mastema hangs on to dear life, and Krishna dodges AGAIN to prevent the third press turn!  I'm so excited I forget to take a photo of how close we came to death, sorry.
   
9. 
   I slam Lucifer with Judgement Light for over 4000 damage, and the fight is over.  Besides slightly upped damage, he was much weaker than the previous encounter, where I was 20 levels lower, with much worse demons, had to fight Merkabah prior with no break in between, and most importantly he had Dekunda/Dekaja to strip buffs/debuffs completely.  Sadly, the death animation occurs too swiftly for me to take a photo.
   

Stephen shows up and gives an exposition dump about how God can use our memories to create deadly simulations of our prior battles.  Everyone acts surprised that God can do this, but I'm not.  He's GOD.

Here's our HP and MP after the battle.  You can kind of see how badly the active party is hurting after that one bad turn.  Huang Di uses the last of his MP to heal the party to full.  Overall, I had my big hitters lose maybe 1/4 -1/3 of their MP, which isn’t too bad.  I can still handle this.  I then proceed to the second brane.


Same Shit, Different colors.  As expected, this second floor is full of angels (or illusions of angels?), the more expected enemy to face when fighting God.  I use the first encounter to energy drain Siddhartha and Mastema back to a good store of MP.  Given what we just learned, Merkabah redux is likely the boss of this floor, along with Victor and Azrael beforehand no doubt.  Guess you'll get to see how I handle going into a fight I know.  There’s a healing station in clear view; while I’ve allowed one use per station, I’d like to see if I can do it without using them at all.  My situation isn’t so dire yet as to require it anyways.

Anyways, that's it for now!  I'm traversing the 2nd Brane now, but I'll reserve posting any further until anyone interested can give me feedback on what they liked/didn't like about the report so far.  Anything I didn't cover you want to know?  Anything I did cover you don't want to see again?  Please tell me!

EDIT: Here's a clearer photo of where everyone's MP stands at the beginning of the 2nd Brane, though this is after Huang healed everyone to full HP and Siddhartha and Mastema refilled their MP by energy draining an encounter.

[Dp101]

I enjoyed reading this overall, really the only major issue I have with the report is that some images (like the last one of hp) are far more blurry than others, and I cannot read any of the numbers in those shots. Also the actual effects of some of the abilities were a little unclear at times, but I could mostly work out what they were doing from context.

[RifleAvenger]

I enjoyed reading this overall, really the only major issue I have with the report is that some images (like the last one of hp) are far more blurry than others, and I cannot read any of the numbers in those shots. Also the actual effects of some of the abilities were a little unclear at times, but I could mostly work out what they were doing from context.

Thanks for the feedback.  As for the moves, if there's anything you're still unsure of I can list stuff out specifically in a new post for clarification.  I can also list stats for each party member at the current point in time, as I doubt I'll ever get the images clear enough to read smaller text.

As for the photos, I figured they'd be an issue.  Sadly, the camera I have doesn't like taking images of screens up close, and I don't think I'll ever be able to get small text (like many of the numbers and resist/weak abbreviations in the status screen) to be readable.  I can try for better shots of walking around the dungeon, since those are also very blurry, but this area is probably worse than most given its odd kaleidoscopic color scheme.

I wish my camera was better, but if I had the money to buy a new camera I'd just buy a set computer hook up for my 3DS instead and get crystal clear screenshots.  If you have any advice on how maybe to improve the photos with my current camera, I'm all ears.

[El Grillo]

You can take screenshots through the 3DS and miiverse, though it is admittedly a bit of a hassle.

http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Screenshots-with-the-3DS

[RifleAvenger]

You can take screenshots through the 3DS and miiverse, though it is admittedly a bit of a hassle.

http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Screenshots-with-the-3DS

Wow, thank you so much for this.  I've never really used any of the Nintendo community features, but it doesn't surprise me that Nintendo made taking screencaps this convoluted.  Still, it works out much, much better.



I've fixed up the entire "Meet the Party" segment with better images, and added a new image showing everyone's MP amounts at the beginning of the 2nd Brane. I also fixed some formatting that caused two photos of the Lucifer fight to not show up.  Sadly the actual trek through the 1st Brane will not be rerecorded to get better image quality; I don't want to go through that again!  Expect these screencap images for the rest of this report going forward though.

Ominously, the original Shin Megami Tensei 4 doesn't have a Miiverse community, so if I do wind up doing a full SMT variant run I'll likely have to use the camera again.

[RefSteel]

Thanks for the reports, RifleAvenger!  Also, even though the game's God is the demiurge in the sense of an ignorant and/or evil creator of the material universe, according to Oxforddictionaries.com, there's an alternate definition of demiurge:

(in Gnosticism and other theological systems) a heavenly being, subordinate to the Supreme Being, that is considered to be the controller of the material world and antagonistic to all that is purely spiritual.

So maybe that's kind of what they're going for with that character here?

[RifleAvenger]

@RefSteel: That is a possibility, but now that I think more about it Shin Megami Tensei suggests that beings can be split into constituent pieces.  The bosses of the last dungeon on the Neutral and Chaos routes of SMT 2 (the Megido Ark) are all names of God, and implied to be a part of him.  Perhaps Demiurge is just a fragment of God that wants to usurp the greater whole, or perhaps there is no real explanation.  Mastema, Seraph, and Throne seem perfectly fine joining with me against their boss after all.

Anyways, sorry for the slow updates everyone.  I'd like to just say it was because I was sick, but the reality is I don't have much time to assemble these posts during weekdays.

God's Universe, 2nd Brane

I explore the initial entry area for Brane 2 in more detail.  Perhaps befitting the Law aligned enemies of this floor, everything looks to be symmetrical.  More pressing, there appear to be 8 doors visible from the entrance to the 2nd Brane alone (4 of them circled in red in above image)!  Well, thinking on the bright side, hopefully that means no more teleporter mazes.   I try the first door to the left, let’s do things systematically this time.  The door leads to brane L.  There’s a locked chest across from the entrance I came through (no key required, instead I need to get to a power well and strike the chest before the timer runs out) and the wrong side of a shortcut to my right.  There are also more relics; if I could return to town I’d make a good deal of money.  The other thing there's a lot of are some particularly unfriendly angels.


I do get greedy again with Odin’s Thunder Reign and get stuffed for it (the leftmost angel in the image is absorbing the blow).  Fortunately, my exploring party’s well chosen resistances once again save the day, with the enemy using their own all hitting thunder attack that Odin repels.  I really need to stop using Thunder Reign; even nothing resists it, it’s too MP intensive, and given my party’s resistance spreads giving the enemy an extra turn of life isn’t too much of a risk.

I'm beginning to realize that enemies in God's Universe either don’t have the same diminishing returns mechanic as elsewhere in the game, or more likely give a ton of XP.  It seems the game really wants to fasttrack anyone behind the curve, though I’m not surprised given rumors that the final floor has level 99 regular enemies. Random encounters on this floor are less threatening because of they mostly use spells that hit the entire party.  In many games this would be a bad thing, but in SMT/with my current party that means they’re losing press turns on hitting null/absorb/reflect resistances.  On the flip side, I can’t seem to lock down what their weaknesses are (curiously it ISN’T dark), so the fights take longer as I make sure I’m using piercing or almighty attacks.



Since that didn’t work out, I return to 2nd Brane A, and take the next door to my left.  This takes me to 2nd Brane D.  This leads into a short area leading to a cliff I can jump off of.  I do so.  Flynn catches an enemy encounter that was lurking behind where I landed.  While he kills it, I break a shortcut wall to the left.  Past the wall is a series of stairs and cube islands, with two more doors in the distance.  Given how large and full of encounters this floor seems to be, the teleporter maze from before seems almost preferable now!

I take the most direct route to the far doors, skipping a staircase located halfway between the dropoff point and the doors.  The first door is a green door, and I’m able to use it!  It takes me to Brane K.  I decide to turn around and check the other door nearby in Brane D.  It takes me back to the entryway in Brane A!  Looks like some of these routes are circular, so this floor isn’t actually as big as I was beginning to fear it was.  I return to the beginning of 2nd Brane K, and some brief exploration reveals another one way jump.

Krishna levels up, and wants to learn Salvation.  I was REALLY tempted to teach him the move, he’d been screaming about “giving mankind [his] salvation!” all game after all!  However, it’s actually not a shoe in: several party members including Siddhartha already know Salvation, Krishna is not likely to smirk to gain the extra effect given his lack of any null or better resistances (on the other hand, he does dodge like a pro), and therefore Salvation would most of the time be no better than Krishna using a bead chain with healing knowhow.  The best thing about taking it is that it would upgrade Siddhartha’s own Salvation upon Krishna unlocking his final move.  It could fit in over Dream Raga, given that I have Set to seal enemies and the main character can use items to inflict other ailments.  In the end, I decide that Dream Raga leaves Krishna more overall utility, and turn down Krishna’s salvation one final time.

Shortly after Krishna leveled up, I run into a teleporter.  Fortunately, it only takes me to a different region high up in Brane K, where there’s a jump off to the start of the sub-area (the door from Brane D), several jump offs to places unknown (marked in red), and a green door.  I try the green door, but it wants Dexterity.  So I take the unknown jump off point closest to the teleporter instead. That just drops me next to the lower teleporter, and it seems the middle unknown drop would do the same.  So this time I take the far drop.  I also switch AI partner back to Hallelujah.  This drop leads me to a chest with x2 magic mirrors and x2 attack mirrors (items that grant 1 turn reflect magic and reflect physical respectively).  Apparently Brane K was just here for loot.  I return to Brane D.

I go down that staircase I skipped awhile back.  It leads to a dead end.  I continue and pass where I initially jumped down from the original entrance to Brand D, go up a staircase, and find a chest.  It’s trapped and I get blindsided, but the enemies immediately hit one of Mastema’s four reflect resists, and I clean up the encounter at no real risk.  The chest has a small magic incense (permanent +1 increase to magic) and a light grimoire (XP in a bottle).  All that roundabout, and Brane D and K were just home to a few measly treasure chests!  

I return to Brane A.  Taking a better look around, I notice that there’s one door I didn’t notice before (#9) blocked by a wall that needs a power well to break.  Looks like the key to this floor is to find the power well, and know what doors and jump offs lead to where so I can reach the breakable wall before the timer runs out.

I continue trying the doors in Brane A in the clockwise fashion.  The third door from the left of the entrance seems to be one way though, and I cannot enter.  So I check out the next door.  This takes me to 2nd Brane F.  Immediately I can see a power well !  But the way to it seems to be blocked by a shortcut wall  .  There’s an inactive teleporter near the power well, so I know what I ought to be looking for now.  Next to the shortcut wall is a shining blue door, but much like the gold doors from before it seems to be locked somehow.

Turning around, I notice a walkway to the side of the entrance to Brane F that I previously missed.  It seems to connect to some other floating islands I spotted floating below.  Once I get down there, the first thing I run into is another power-well required wall, followed by a pointless shortcut wall to a chest that obviously will have traps around it.  I walk along the edge of the platform to avoid those, and find x2 alluring water (increases enemy encounter spawns, not using that!) and a bead chain (heal all party members to full HP, very useful).  Ironically, after all that effort evading the traps, I get an “ambush” enemy spawn as I leave the platform with the chest (encounters spawn all around and rush you, essentially forcing you to battle.  If you quickly attack as they spawn, you can prevent a blindside though).

The result of the encounter is pretty funny.  The demon hails me for negotiations at the start of combat, as sometimes happens, but the innate bad mood of the enemies in this dungeon causes the above to happen! Did you seriously give up a turn of combat just to insult me? To be fair, doing that is actually an option you can choose, and I did, in the original Lucifer fight.  Fortunately, that little opening exchange doesn't actually end the negotiation altogether. Given that Scout or Truce will likely not go anywhere I try for trade, and it works.  I turn down a few outrageous demands, and exchange a useless Megidola stone (use item, medium almighty dmg to all foes, I've got better options) for a soma drop (restores medium HP and a little SP, actually pretty good).  Funnier still, the angel refuses to let us go our separate ways after that, allowing me to kill him and take my megidola stone back off his corpse  .  Normally I'd worry about the bad reputation from this, but its not like it matters when almost no one in here can be negotiated with anyways!

Getting back to exploration, another floating island nearby that I can reach has a portal cube (things I previously referred to as teleport shortcuts, apparently this is their real name) and a teleporter, the latter of which I travel through.  It takes me to an isolated section of 2nd Brane G, blocked off by a shortcut wall, with a power well required chest and another teleporter.  I take the new teleporter.  It takes me to the power well from the beginning of Brane F!


I charge up Navarre (the power well works by empowering the pompador’d ghost of the training wheels antagonist from SMT4, it’s a long story…) and run back through the teleporter again to grab the contents of that locked chest.  It contains an armor boost kit (permanently upgrades a piece of armor) and 10 mamudo stones (use item that preforms a weak all hit dark attack).  After I grab it, I return to Brane F and top off the charge again to give me a full timer.  I make my way back into Brane A and break the wall in front of the 9th door.

I return to Brane F to use the power well again twice more before checking the middle door, going for the power-well required wall in Brane F and the locked chest in Brane L.  Past the wall seems to be nothing at all, and there was a garnet (gems can be traded to a specific NPC for some of the best consumable items in the game) and 10 maragi stones (weak fire to all item) in the chest.

So I take back what I said before about the all hit attacks being entirely a good thing.  Though it does stop the enemy from getting full turns, it also guarantees damage on some party members.  Worse still, I learn the hard way that the enemy Thrones here have a single target fire spell, which is bad news for Set.  With my Throne out of mana by now, I have to resort to either using my weaker healing items, or having Siddhartha or Seraph use Salvation (which I’m a bit iffy about using out of battle because combined with energy drain it can sort of trivialize healing).

Siddhartha increases to level 97, and Throne levels up too.  This causes Throne to evolve into Cherub, restoring his MP in the process.  Looks like healbot is back online for the time being, and I can push back whether to allow Salvation to be used for out of battle healing for awhile longer.

Though there are other doors I haven’t tried in the entrance area, going for 100% completion risks running Odin and Set completely dry, at which point I’d either risk an encounter going very badly just using attackers and/or having to switch in and burn the MP of other party members.  There are too many STR/DEX doors behind which the good loot seems to be located too.  With that in mind, I go through the newly unlocked 9th door.  It takes me to 2nd Brane B.

After a brief battle within, Mitra levels to 98, and learns Self-Righteous Vow (increase all stats when weakness is struck).  Self-Righteous vow kind of sucks because getting hit in a weakness is still awful despite the power up.  Honestly, Glacial Blast, the alternative choice, may well be the better option (1-4 medium ice attacks at random).  However, Mitra’s not mission critical like Krishna, so I felt a little obligated to let him have his signature ability.  Hopefully it winds up being useful somehow, and I don’t fight anything where Glacial Blast would make or break me!

Shortly after that, ghost Johnathan (the deceased Law aligned party member of SMT 4) pays me a visit as well.  This seals the deal that the floor’s boss is going to be Merkabah.  A chest hidden down an optional path past that contains the Wings of Order headpiece, which just turns Siddhartha into a blonde.  I’m sticking with my shades for now, but the Wings do give a tiny bit of extra HP and a significant Luck boost, at the cost of 5 points of magic (not a big loss given how far past the softcap I am).  After two staircases going up, I enter a door that takes me to Brane C.  There I’m forced to make another one way jump to the rest of the Brane.
DEJA VU
The area below the jump has a shortcut wall to the left that I break, another jump off in front of me, and a route towards a dead end to the right.  When on the left path I see two doors in the distance, I realize that this floor is an exact clone of Brane D!  Except for the Portal Cube in front of one of the doors.  I go through the door and… it’s a one way trip to Brane A.  Just another time waster… Fortunately I can just go back through a portal cube to return.

Odin levels to 88 and I teach him Drain Force (getting rid of his only weakness!) in exchange for Rakunda (lower all foe defense).  Mana surge was the other option, since Odin may never get back to full MP.  However, in the off case he does wind up back at full (and I still may have to resort to a use of a healing station this run), minus mana surge he’d be seriously wanting for mana, and so wouldn’t have much room for casting rakunda anyways.  He’s still got healing knowhow for the amazing utility that grants.

Teleporting back to Brane C, I take the other door.  It takes me to Brane E.  It looks like a clone of Brane K, but this time I begin on the platform with the jump off points and a teleporter.  Sure enough, the teleporter takes me down below.  I go about checking the brane in the same manner as K, when I get jumped by a nasty horde encounter that nearly eliminates me turn 1 with a double megidolaon (heavy almighty to all)!  Since horde encounters often summon reinforcements and those can blindside too, I take no chances.  I heal to full, seal the horde with some of Set’s increasingly precious remaing MP, and actually lay down a luster candy.  The horde breaks the seal after one failed Megidolaon, and then tosses two agidynes (heavy fire to single target) at Set, killing him.

I swap in Seraph, counterattack, and remove the enemy smirk with Mastema’s magaon.  They continue to hammer me hard, but I kill the horde next turn. Reinforcements arrive in the form of an identical horde (thankfully no blindside).  After that one dies, ANOTHER one appears!  I get lucky this time, Siddhartha is smirking and has pierce, so I cast judgement light and activate the instant kill.  The resulting experience is huge, but the battle cost some of Odin and Set’s HP, and a bunch of Cherub’s MP in resurrecting Set and healing everyone.  Without energy drain Siddhartha, Mastema, and Seraph would be down a lot of MP just from that fight alone.  Yeesh, and here I was getting complacent!

The rest of Brane E is short, containing a chest with small Luck and Dex incense, and a door to brane L.  That nasty horde encounter is fairly common already, and I’m eager to finish up this floor ASAP at this point.  One fight almost ends the run, leaving only Mastema alive at 59 HP  !  Nice save there buddy.  Sadly, Cherub’s MP has already run dry now.  I’m down to using items now, unless I stoop to using a healing station or start digging into other party member’s MP (or get cheesy with Salvation on the two energy drainers who have it).  I elect not to resummon Set for the rest of the floor; he’s below 100 MP now, and I cannot afford giving the Heavenly Hordes free turns off his fire weakness.  I change to Shiva instead, hoping only to need normal attacks.

I break that shortcut wall that stymied me in Brane L from nearly the first step I took on the 2nd Brane.  After that, a short walk reveals another portal cube, and a door behind which a strong presence lurks. Boss time.

Brane 2 Boss Battle

The midbosses are going to definitely include Azrael and one of either Victor (my earlier guess) or Aniel (who I previously discounted, because he's a cutscene fight very early in the game).  The boss is going to be Merkabah without a doubt.

This time I lead with Seraph, Inanna, and Mitra.  Mitra will power through the midbosses along with Siddhartha and Seraph, with minimal support from Inanna.  The goal is to minimize MP use by anyone who's not an energy drainer or one shot wonder, while still burning through the midbosses before they do much damage.  That way I've got enough steam left when I reach Merkabah for the real fight.  Everyone here nulls or resists light and dark (Azrael’s favored elements) while two resist lightning (in case we get Aniel as the second) and two resist gun (in case it’s Victor).  When Merkabah comes in, I need to immediately swap Mitra for Krishna (big support needed) and Seraph for Izanami (strong dark attack).  I’ll detail my thoughts and prep for Merkabah more if I make it to him (this will be a MUCH harder fight than Lucifer).

The bosses are Azrael and Aniel.  Aniel I’ve never truly fought, Flynn kills him for you in a cutscene fight early in the game.  However, I remember he likes strong lighting attacks.  Hopefully those fly right into Seraph’s lightning reflection.  Azrael uses light/dark attacks, and smile charge to try and fish for their smirk add-on instant kills (that’s why everyone in this party resists or nulls both elements).  I freeze a bit as the SMT 4 Archangel battle music plays, and I realize I forgot to switch off of Hallelujah for Isabeau…  Guess I’ll have to deal with properly fitting in heals myself this time, instead of letting Isabeau healbot me.

1. • I dope, debilitate, luster candy, and have Mitra Smile Charge first turn.  Hallelujah alternates between charging one turn and delivering strong attacks the next for the entire battle (he never used any of his support spells).
   • Aniel uses Makajamaon!  Thankfully only Seraph gets sealed, and Mitra’s immunity to the status robs Azrael of his turn.
   
2. • I concentrate on Siddhartha, Mitra uses severe judgement, which has its damage skyrocketed with smirk+auto-crit, grabbing an extra pressturn.  Inanna debilitates again.  Seraph passes turn.  Siddhartha uses luster candy.  Mitra smile charges.
   • Bosses do nothing of note, attacking into resistances.
   
3. • Siddhartha uses a concentrated Ice Age on Azrael, hitting his weakness for over 4000 damage.  Mitra follows up with a smirked Akasha arts for the kill.  Inanna concentrates.  Seraph, having shaken off the seal already, uses salvation.  Siddhartha energy drains.  Mitra swaps to Izanami (better to have them in BEFORE Merkabah arrives).  Inanna attacks (only an extra turn less, no point in using the concentrate unless I can hit weakness and gain an extra turn).
   • Aniel gives himself two press turns with a move called Diploid force!  Wow, haven’t seen that sort of bullshit in an non-superboss since SMT Nocturne (there's a boss in Nocturne infamous for being able to wipe you out before you can move, since its AI routine has the possibility of using the extra pressturns move multiple times a round).  He then wipes out our debuffs with dekunda and hits Siddhartha for about 30% of his HP.
   
4. • I heal the damage back with an energy drain.  Seraph also energy drains.  Inanna slams aniel for 2500 with a concentrated raging tempest.  Izanami concentrates.  Siddhartha uses a magic mirror to grant a magic reflection shield to the party (need to cover Inanna’s new lightning weakness).
   • Aniel seals Inanna, and then shoots himself in the face with his own lightning off my magic mirror.
   
5. I concentrate, switch Inanna for Shiva, have Shiva attack, energy drain w/ Seraph, pass Izanani’s turn, and have Siddhartha finish Aniel w/ Ice Age.
   
6.  
   Merkabah arrives as reinforcements.  Merkabah is a NASTY boss.  His all hitting almighty Chariot and Thou Shalt Not Resist moves deal big damage and lower Evade/Defense respectively, and he will use them multiple times per turn with his 3 press turns.  This means even if he doesn’t pull out dekaja, he’s always chipping away at your stats.   Nearly all his attacks are Almighty, meaning you cannot resist them and he doesn’t risk losing press turns like most enemies (including our previous boss, Lucifer).  The ones that aren’t almighty (Deadly Wind and Riot Gun) do extremely high damage.  Worse, he has Hexagram, an 100% accurate untyped instant kill.  I have no instant kill immune party members, but Hallelujah CAN give me endure effects, so maybe having him here instead of Isabeau will be a good thing.
   
7. • 1st turn I go for buffing and debuffing.  Yes, Merkabah will chip off my buffs, but if actually let my stats drop below normal I WILL lose this fight.  Doping, imposing stance, switch Seraph for Krishna, Krishna debilitates, Izanami concentrates.  Hallelujah attacks this turn, as he does every turn unless indicated otherwise.
   • Merkabah instantly destroys Krishna with two severe single target spells in row.  Shiva coerces off his third turn.
   
8. • Siddhartha uses my only summon stone to at once revive and resummon Krishna.  Krishna debilitates, Shiva imposing stance’s.
   • Merkabah tries to merk Krishna AGAIN, but this time Krishna dodges the second attack.
   
9. 
   I decide to blow my Partner Assault.  At end of turn, my AI allies will give me two support spells, all attack with normal hits, and most importantly rob Merkabah of his entire turn.  This ability is really good (and you lose it if you side with Dagda), but takes a long time to build up.  I have no regrets using it now.  I prepare for my free turn by all stats buffing twice with Sidd/Krishna, having Shiva charge, Izanami unleashes Dark Grudge to hit Merkabah’s weakness and grab a turn, and Siddhartha concentrates.
   
10. On the partner assault, Asahi heals me to full, Isabeau gives me my last luster candy stack, and everyone attacks for 300-400 damage each.  Krishna, Shiva, and Izanami get free smirks out of the deal too.  On my free turn, Siddhartha uses a mudoon stone to access a dark attack s/he wouldn’t otherwise have.  The damage is ~2200, not shabby.  Krishna uses Deadly wind for 1200, Shiva gets an auto-crit, maximized, charged Akasha Arts… for 5000 damage?!?  I’m so shocked I fail to realize Merkabah is already dead and again miss screencapping the boss dying.
    

Ummm… wow.  I’m honestly disappointed.  I skipped pretty much all the stages of the fight because of that massive damage burst, and Merkabah never used any of his truly threatening moves.  I do think Lucifer and Merkabah have less health here than in their original fights, and Hallelujah definitely helped make things more killy.  Nonetheless, I feel silly for getting so worked up for Merkabah only to steamroll him.  Well, he got me to spend my summon stone and a bunch of MP I guess.

In the resulting level ups, Mara gains reflect Physical in exchange for Dance of Mara.  An all charm ailment is nice and all, esp. with Set just about dry on MP, but Mara has very little MP and all of it will be needed for whatever boss battle I throw him into.  And reflect physical is just amazing.

With that, the 2nd Brane is done with.  Odin, Set, Krishna, Shiva, and Inanna are low on MP, which is worrisome.  Mitra is barely under half, but I’m not counting on him being of much further use.  Huang Di and Cherub are bone dry and pretty much retired at this point.  I may have to consider beginning to use my MP items soon, or even bite my pride and use a healing station if there’s one on the next floor (by beating Brane 2, the healing station there is now no longer an option).

However, when I arrive on Brane 3, I find it to be an ominously short and narrow hallway.  Another boss battle already?  I know from my map that this isn't the final battle, so something tells me I might be about to encounter things I HAVEN'T seen before.  If the rumors I've heard are true, this might be where the going really gets rough.

Well, nobody said standing against God was going to be easy.

[Dp101]

Great reporting. From the sounds of things, maybe you should have lifted the no passive MP restoration restriction for healers only, since it sounds like things are getting a little rough in that department.

[RifleAvenger]

Great reporting. From the sounds of things, maybe you should have lifted the no passive MP restoration restriction for healers only, since it sounds like things are getting a little rough in that department.

I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Perhaps I should have lifted the ban, but I actually don't think it's necessary.  Yes, this challenge is likely only doable with some form of MP battery (unless you grind a ton of MP restoratives beforehand or flat out evade any random encounters), since without energy drain I'd likely be in a very bad spot or already dead.  However, combining multiple sources would really trivialize things IMO, and most of the passive effects either affect the entire party or provide half to full restores per fight.  

I've got a few ways to deal with healing now w/o using a healing station or consuming my item supply:

1. Use Siddhartha and Seraph's Salvation move in battle.  I still think it's a little cheesy to use it on the energy drainers to top off out of battle, but in battle it's using up turns, is pretty hefty MP-wise (requiring turns spent energy draining), and the enemy is likely going to chip off some more health next turn.  The big risk with this method is leaving a fight at half-HP and getting blindsided the next.
   
2. Rely on the AI partner.  The obvious threat here is that the AI might get stupid and not heal me at a critical moment.  This could be lessened by switching to Asahi instead of isabeau, but Asahi does nothing BUT heal (thus has little utility).  Plus, the same problem could emerge; Asahi might think it's better to cure a status ailment than heal a critically wounded party.  The other issue of leaving a battle at low HP and getting blindsided also exists.
   
3. I have apps for on the go Demon Fusion and the Demon Compendium, so I don't need to visit town to fuse or rebuy a demon!  I've got ~80000 macca to spend, and probably won't get much more (random encounters don't drop money, fundraise sucks so I'd have to grind to get anywhere, can't sell relics).  That's enough for rebuying a healbot like Throne or Cherub twice though, or buying a decent demon I've previously had, or buying a good piece of fusion fodder.  
   
   Fusion between demons currently in my party doesn't even cost macca, and anyone who's out of MP or had their day in the sun already is probably better off fused.  The issue here is I need to be very careful about how I handle it, with my limited funds and no ability to recruit "wild" demons in this dungeon (or get back recruit/special fusion only party members, they're likely out of my price range).  Aka Krishna, Shiva, etc. I can't risk fusing away, even if the result would be very strong.  I was really hoping to get to the last floor before having to do this, just in case any of the bosses in here turn out to be unlocked for fusion after defeat (it seems unlikely any will be recruit-able in a more conventional manner, though that's pretty common for bosses).
   
4. I've got a lot of app points I haven't used, and I'm planning on spending them when I hit max level.  If I really need some additional MP restoration, there are apps that can help that I'd be able to buy.
   
5. If I do my support and offense well enough, I shouldn't have to heal often anyways.  Bosses are somewhat of an exception, but so far even then I've tried to avoid being in a position where I need to constantly heal (except for Isabeau's AI making it a priority when I let her on the active team).