Forgotten Megami Tensei Demons

[Music] [Applause] if you were to ask most fans of the Megami Tensei series what makes it great most of them will probably tell you it's either the story or the gameplay but one of my favorite aspects about the series that I don't think he gets enough recognition for is the monsters that you use whether you're playing persona mainline or any other spin-off these games all have a one thing in common and that's the compendium of monsters in every game with the explosion of monster collecting games in the late 90s and early 2000s most people seem to forget that the genre owes its very existence to the Megami Tensei series Shin Megami Tensei has a roster made up of hundreds of demons based on ancient gods angels demons and other creatures from various mythologies throughout history I remember when I played persona 3 as a kid I was originally drawn in by the anime aesthetic and dating sim elements but after playing it I quickly began to appreciate it not just for that but also for the combat and the personas it was almost like Pokemon in a way I had hundreds of personas to choose from but unlike pokemons these monsters were real mythological figures and I would spend hours on the Megami Tensei wiki reading all about 'ln I wasn't just playing a game I was getting a history lesson too many of these demons are staples in every game in the series but some have only appeared once or a few times then forgotten never to be used again in my dozens of hours browsing the Megami Tensei wiki I've actually discovered that there are a lot of really cool demons that haven't appeared in any mega 10 games in more than a decade and that's exactly what I'm here to talk about these are some of my favorite demon designs that need to come back for future games just to get a few things out of the way before I start I'm mostly going to be looking at demons that are Ridge innate it in mainline games and this is also not a countdown if this is just an unordered list without further ado let's get on with the video I'm gonna start out by mentioning demons based on creatures that everyone should be familiar with you know monsters some popular mythologies and folklore like elf dark elf Hobgoblin giant and Kraken for example you know most of us in the Western world know what these things are since a lot of them are staples in the high fantasy genre and then there's also demons fur you know broadly defined dragons and Dragon like creatures like wyvern where serpent and worm now these art specifically named creatures like most SMT demons instead they're just generic monsters of the species they're named now I think the reason they haven't included these is because there are other like actual named demons that fall into some of these categories but at the same time that could be said of other demons too like ogre and dwarf for example are also pixie who has been a staple in pretty much every game I don't think it's all that important that these demons be included in future games but it'd be a nice little addition for some of the neutral races and now let's get into some actual demons the demons of judeo-christianity or more specifically the demons of the Fallen race which in most cases are from the Lesser Key of Solomon some examples are and Ross see tree floor Ettie gap Leonarda Haemon there are a lot of fawns that I think should come back now I know the Fallen race has way too many demons already but still we've been seeing the same fallens in almost every game so I don't think anyone would mind if they removed you know some of the crappier fallens in favor of these or maybe make a new race since there's so many demons in judeo-christianity maybe like make a race for demons of judeo-christianity that art from the Lesser Key of Solomon and then that'll open up some room for the Fallen race for demons that are but even if they don't want to include these there is one demon from the goetta that I think stands out from the rest of these Bale no not that Bale this Bale when most people think of Bale they think of the Philistine god Bale but this Bale is a demon from the Lesser Key of Solomon and sometimes considered one of the seven princes of hell like most demons based on the go edek spirits Bale is pretty faithful to his original to picture which comes from the dictionary infernal and you know say what you want about this design but I think this whole spider cat frog and human thing is pretty scary-looking there's definitely a lot of material to work with with this demon but for some reason his only appearance with this design is in shin megami tensei one although he does kind to make a cameo a devil survivor where he's one of the demons that's been absorbed by balberith he also has a design in shin megami tensei too but we don't talk about that one if they wanted to include him in the story there's definitely a lot they could do with him and for an apocalypse we had bail and Beelzebub tied together since they're both from the same Pantheon so I'm sure they could somehow fit this Bale in there if they wanted in fact speaking of bail here's another Philistine God that some of you might have heard of Dagon so one thing that most people don't know about the Philistine religion is that bail is actually not the head god that roll belongs to Dagon Dagon is the god of grain and agriculture and sometimes misinterpreted as a fish God however what makes his design an smt interesting is the fact that it's actually based on H P Lovecraft's Dagon yeah you all know how much I love H P Lovecraft in the Lovecraft mythos Dagon is one of the great old ones the husband of Hydra and the God of the deep ones and it's clear that day God's design in SMTA was inspired by Lovecraft's version of Dagon now if they were to bring back Dagon for the next game there's a lot they could do with him he would be perfect for persona 5 the Royal if the theories about Nyarlathotep returning are true and he would also make an excellent boss an SMT 5-4 sidequest about the Philistine gods so getting back on the topic of actual demons most of the big bad demons from Christianity are represented pretty well in Megami Tensei but there is one that for some reason hasn't had much representation in the franchise at all and that demon is Leviathan well we may not have Leviathan but there is one that we do have Rahab this is a little more obscure of a figure that most of you probably don't know about Rahab is a sea monster from judeo-christian lore described in the book of Job as ruler of the children of pride he's often compared to Leviathan as their bow demonic sea monsters but the funny thing is Leviathan has never actually appeared in a mainline smt game but because of their similarities I think Rahab would make an excellent substitute for him I mean look at him look at this design imagine having this guy on your team or as a persona unfortunately the only games Rahab has appeared in our Shin Megami Tensei - and if and demi kids if you count it now they could bring back Rahab is either a high-level member of the tyrant or the Drake race but honestly I'm okay with whatever they decide to go with as long as he's in there the thing about Rahab is is that there's not much known about him aside from his few mentions in the Bible but these are the makers of Megami Tensei were talking about so there's a lot of room for creativity if they wanted to give her a have a story role even though I'd still be okay with just having him as a summonable demon well that's about it for judeo-christian demons so here's one from Zoroastrianism that you might remember from Nocturne or Ahmad he's the great a poser of the god Ahura Mazda basically the Zoroastrian equivalent of Satan in Christianity but in Nocturne Armand is the demonic sponsor he cowers reason and Nocturne is the only game that this design has appeared in so that might be the reason he hasn't appeared in any other games but I feel sorrow Astraea nism is a pretty underrepresented religion in Megami Tensei which is kind of a shame considering how similar it is to christianity which is the most represented religion in the series if atlas wants to give soro a stirring ism more representation which i think they should are Aman is a no-brainer here's another game specific demon that most of you probably don't remember Adam Kadmon who is Adam Kadmon and no it's not just another name for Adam Adam Kadmon in the Kabbalah is essentially the prototype of Adam in spiritual form the perfect man made by God but unlike Adam of Eden the human adam adam kadmon doesn't exist in the material world he's not corrupted by earthly matter like the physical Adam I don't even completely understand Adam Kadmon myself I got a whole bunch of different answers from who he is and I'm mainly going by his article in the Jewish encyclopedia either way though with a figure like Adam Kadmon there's definitely a lot of potential for a demon in terms of both gameplay and story however the only game that Adam Kadmon has appeared in is SMT 9 for demons like Adam Kadmon and Arman I don't know if Atlas doesn't want to bring them back because of the fact that their game specific but it's not like game specific demons haven't been brought to other games before like Maria for example who was also exclusive to SMT 9 before she got added to strange journey redux and while I'm on the topic of godly figures let's not forget the judeo-christian angels of SMT some examples include soft kill kamyelle raagh UL and opening these are all angels in judeo-christian lore that haven't had a lot of representation and honestly I'd be ok with giving some of the other angels a break especially since I think these designs are a lot better than some of the ones that we normally get opening especially because I mean look at him talk about being creative with designs moving on let's now talk about some demons that aren't so much inspired by mythology they're more inspired by characters from movies like Audrey anyone that's well versed in cinema should know who Audrey is but if you don't he's a giant sentient man-eating plant from the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors or as he proclaims in the movie a mean green mother from outer space some other movie based demons are Chris the car who is based on Christine another 80s movie Beetlejuice from Tim Burton's beetlejuice which I also thought was really creative making him a fallen oh and Franken right out of the Hammer horror films now I can kind of understand why they wouldn't include these designs in any more games due to possible copyright reasons but you could also say the same about a bunch of other demons in the series that have been reoccurring I mean if copyright is the issue just change the palette or something and slightly alter their names and there you go most of us will still know who they're supposed to be and before I move on here's one that's semi based on a movie character Terminator I see this design all the time and examples of how great Conoco artwork is and I've even seen it in a few memes as his name suggests he's inspired by the t800 from the Terminator series which is actually kind of funny to talk about since that thing has been appearing in pretty much every other game this year anyway Terminator has only appeared in Shin Megami Tensei - where he's a member of the Messiaen race which is enemy only unless Shin Megami Tensei 5 was planning to bring back the maasai in cold it probably wouldn't fit into the context of the game and I imagine that's the reason he hasn't appeared in any later games but I don't think that's an excuse not to bring it back I mean this design is just too awesome not to use I mean look at him he's a Christian Templar Knight with a jet pack holding an ar-15 and a spas-12 speaking of Crusaders here are some demons based on real historical figures starting with well Crusader he's one of the most obscure demons in the entire series and the only game that he's ever appeared in in the entire franchise is in the pc engine version of Shin Megami Tensei 1 in this version he appears as a level 60 member of the Tenma race but according to the Megami Tensei wiki he was apparently supposed to be a fiend which i think would have been awesome now there are a lot of other demons based on historical figures some of which come back as Fame demons in S&T 4 but there are a couple that they've left out like solid Dean who was the leader of the Muslim army against the Crusades and Nagas Sunna hiko who was the chieftain of the ancient yamato well so far in the video we've talked about demons based on demons angels gods and historical figures but then there's those demons that aren't really based on any living things at all they're more based on human creations and one of my favorites of those being Oregon ghost what is Oregon ghost well it's based on Oregon energy those of you that don't know Oregon energy is a pseudo-scientific Fringe Theory created by William Reich it's a hypothetical life force in the universe and it's believed that there are these things called organ accumulators that can gather this energy and it can be used to do things like and prove your health or control the weather yeah pretty ridiculous and it's been debunked both of all times yet many people still believe it well whether Oregon energy is real or not I think it's cool that S&T has an entire demon based on this sort of thing it's definitely one of the most creative designs in this series what I like the most about Oregon ghost is that his design is based on the face of war by Salvador Dali that's this freaky painting that you might have seen somewhere another one is Iron Maiden now I'm pretty sure we all know what Iron Maiden's are but what most people believe about them is actually incorrect they're thought to have been used in the Middle Ages but there's actually not a lot of evidence about them being used at all everyone believes that people in the Middle Ages were uncivilized and because of that in the 1800s these things started appearing in museums all over the place either way though I think something like an Iron Maiden is great source material for a demon unfortunately Iron Maiden has only appeared in smt - and there is one more demon in this category that I want to come back shadow and I'm not talking about the shadows in persona well I actually kind of am but this shadow is a demon so according to Carl Jung shadow is the unconscious mind which is where people keep their repressed feelings sound familiar that's what the shadows in persona 4 based on when most people think of shadow and smt if they think of the one in Nocturne but my favorite design is the one from Soul hackers it's a perfect representation of what shadow is supposed to be I don't see them adding shadow in persona for obvious reasons I can definitely see them adding it in mainline using what is basically the shadows from persona 4 in a mainline game would be pretty awesome well we are just about done but before I wrap things up there is one more demon that I think absolutely needs to be in an upcoming game one that you should all be familiar with I saved the best for last this demon is Cthulhu Cthulhu as we all know is a great old one from the Lovecraft mythos he's depicted as a really big ugly monster with tentacles with all the influence that the mega 10 series especially persona takes on the works of HP Lovecraft it's hard to believe that the most iconic figure from his works has hardly appeared in any of the games especially when he has such an awesome design Kaneko's depiction of Cthulhu is pretty accurate to how he's described in Lovecraft's works a giant ugly monster with tentacles and they hung with thing okay that's actually not an HP Lovecraft's works but this is Conoco we're talking about so is anyone really surprised and I think we all know why he designed him like this either way this design is cool and he's one of the most important figures in the Lovecraft mythos but for some reason Cthulhu has only appeared in Shin Megami Tensei 2 and if although he did appear in the PSP version of persona 2 eternal punishment but we're still waiting on that and you can't even use him as a persona I'm guessing the reason they haven't brought him back is because of the thing I mentioned earlier which I can't show but we already have Mara we have Misha Guji we have Diana master theory on our iakh if we can get these guys there's no reason we can't handle a giant octopus with a sausage for a tongue heck both Devil Survivor 1 & 2 had our iakh and those games didn't even have em ratings if it's really too much to show a male just colored green or something what I think would really do him justice is if they were to bring him back for persona 5 to roil it would be perfect if they're planning to bring back neural attempt for the royal but even if Cthulhu doesn't have a story role having him as a persona would be pretty awesome Alice if there's a demon that absolutely needs to come back in the next game its Cthulhu I know you guys can make it happen well guys that is it for the video I hope you all enjoyed and be sure to tell me what you all think tell me if there are any I missed too because I'm curious to see what other underused demons there are before I end the video though I just want to get one quick announcement out of the way for those of you that are going to anime week in Atlanta my panel got approved I'm going to be running the Megami Tensei in persona panel it's going to be on Saturday November 2nd from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Cobb Galleria Center in room 102 I also might be doing a fan meetup there it depends whether or not I can get enough people but if you're going to be an anime week in Atlanta you just hit me up on discord or if you're there and you see a short skinny guy cosplaying as Kazuya or Tatsuya it's probably me I know I'm going to be going to the rave might be going to a few panels here and there but yeah it's going to be fun oh and one more thing 10000 punishments for sin is getting ready to release there tensei fanbook it's a collection of fan art cosplays and other Megami Tensei related stuff I'll have a link to their website in the description so be sure to check them out anyways guys that is it for the video we should have rate comment and subscribe and until next time I will see you all later [Music]

Channel: Nyarly

Views: 292,573

Keywords: Persona, Megami Tensei, Shin Megami Tensei, Persona 5, Persona 4, Persona 3, Shin Megami Tensei II, Shin Megami Tensei IV, Nocturne, Demons, Religion, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Kabbalah, Bible, Satan, H.P. Lovecraft, Cthulhu, Dagon, Baal, Philistine gods, Atlus, Video Games, Gaming, Kazuma Kaneko, Art, Classic, Nintendo, Sony, SNES, Playstation, Japan, JRPG, RPG, Lore, Mythology, Iron Maiden, Orgone Energy, Terminator, Movies, Leviathan, Goetia

Id: Wf5LPCXVOjI

Length: 18min 6sec (1086 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 15 2019