Nyarly: I really hate MegaTen sometimes... MegaTen: We only show you tough love because we care about your growth.

I can't believe you beat it in under five years

*5:06**:* "and speaking of apps" *me:* no, please **no Raid: Shadow Legends shill** *me:* breathes a sigh of relief

"🅱️erhaps." -Lucifer

You get law points for being nice - Like that one time when you kill a demon that begs you for mercy, tell people from Tokyo that you can't coexist together or that scenario in Temple where you say that if someone is different from the rest then it should be excluded by them.

"It's one of the shorter games of the series" *me:* This game has an ending?

Can you beat SMT Nocturne without buffs? Have fun.

CAn YoU BeAT SMT V before ItS reLeasSe date Edit: well bois smtv : )

pokemon run: can carry only 6 demons, fusion is allowed to get rid of the extra demons. Flynn can only use support skills like buffs and healing. :p

"This one has come in contact with Tokyo's manga." Is it SO bad to read Dr. Stone, Merkabohnathan?

“The neutral ending is pretty much impossible without religiously following a guide” I got the neutral ending by accident my first time playing the game

"you get the law ending by being nice" no you get the law ending by upholding the status quo, sometimes that means being nice, you get the neutral ending if you're just nice ignoring whether or not it upholds the status quo

Tayama: DON'T DO THIS! Palpatine: DO IT.

17:16 it's not that he hates Yuriko, it's that the ring of gaea believes that might makes right. If Yuriko couldn't defend herself and ends up dead, it's her own fault for not being strong enough. The weak deserve no sympathy and the strong earn no hate.

For being such a huge SMT fan, I'm surprised that YOU'RE surprised by the Law ending. Law and Chaos in SMT have never been about good or bad, they represent ideology. Chaos is the power of strength to forge your own destiny in most games. The idea that a person should not be tied down by anything or anyone other than themselves. Law has always been the path of order. Doing exactly what is told and asked of you by those who hold a superior seat than you.

If the Law ending confuses you, it's because you've internalised the Law vs Chaos conflict as Good vs Evil. It's not, it's about law vs chaos; order against liberty; and a few similar dichotomies. The Law/Order side isn't about being nice to people, it's about being honourable with a very strict adherence to a code of ethics, and conforming to the rules of God. Taken to an extreme and dogmatic level, it produces a society whose structure is easily threatened from without, and becomes very oppressive and authoritarian to cement its hold; those that cannot or refuse to conform are liabilities that must be rid of to protect the order. The overbearing order suppresses their human nature, their curiosity, and just all around denies the qualities that make us human and less than noble. We see this repeatedly as people step out of line and turn into demons (somehow) as they receive but a small taste of this forbidden fruit. It's for that reason that Tokyo must be destroyed: it's full of forbidden fruit; knowledge, manga, philosophy, and more that directly threaten the order and way of life in Mikado. Chaos/Liberty conversely is a rejection of order; defiance of the law, self determination, the freedom to make your own choices, decisions, and mistakes. Taken to an extreme, it encompasses a might makes right philosophy we always see in SMT. I suppose the lesson here is that extremes are bad and a middle ground is ideal. :)

SMT IV's neutral ending "impossible to get without religiously following a guide"... Funny, I did it on release, by accident.

"Ive played SMTIV so much Ive memorized it" >doesnt know demons evolved bruh

14:42 yeah, I would say being able to kill this Asmodeus with Hama was definitely intentional, given that the vast majority of SMT bosses are immune to both Hama and Mudo spells.

Can you beat a SMT game without jamming to the soundtrack? Impossible!

Hah, I'm still happy I randomly got the Neutral ending without trying on my first run of SMT4. I didn't realize how hard it is to get without looking things up until I looked at what the other endings were after beating it.

Can’t wait for “Can you beat Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne without changing Magatama?” (probably yes but it sure would be frustrating)

This man did this run in under 26 Hours. How.

“I really hate megaten sometimes” I think we all have those moments to ourselves

Beat SMT Devil Survivor without Fusion and you have to get the Song of Hope Ending

Lucifer aint the smartest tool in the shed, I remember him blasting Merkabah with Light skills, therefore giving Merk free Smirks, what an idiot.

so glad to see someone doing challenge runs of SMT, thank you Nyarly!!

14:14 It could be worse, I imagined the honeymoon. There is no substance in this world powerful enough to erase that imagine from my mind...

I’ve watched this video probably 4 times now without playing smt 4 and I still don’t consider myself spoiled because all of the plot stuff is nonsense words to me

*(LONG MESSAGE WARNING)* Him talking about his luck with Minotaur reminds me of something that happened to me while playing this game. For people who haven't played, the way escaping a battle works is that you have a percentage chance to escape that is shown. If you fail, the chance raises by 10% I was in a battle with all of my party members low health and I tried to escape with a 60% chance, it failed and a party member dies I try again with a 70% chance, it also failed and the two other party members died. I ended up going all the way to 100% chance (4 failed tries) before I finally was able to escape the battle. I did the math, and that had a 0.24% chance of happening Only in SMT

This was my first SMT game, so it always has a special place in my heart. There's so little good content of it out there, so thank you for this. Also i love challenge run videos and I would love to see you do more of these with megaten

11:30 "because he's a grass type Pokemon" Waitaminute

Speaking for everyone I think we would all appreciate more content like this!!!

KZfaq guy: He’s a grass type pkmn Me:wait wut

Nyarly: "It's really weird that you get the law ending by being nice and merciful." Also Nyarly: *kicks Kuebiko off of his property by killing him, doesn't immediately condemn Pluto's genocide of the people of Blasted Tokyo*

I know it's Citra doing it, but I love how Lucifer's theme for his second form slows down. It's like he and Walter come to terms with the fact that they can't beat Merkabah and Flynn.

It was great seeing you do this challenge. I can only hope that you do more in the future! Now, as for why "it makes sense" that the Law Ending requires the Reactor's activation: remember that Tokyo is considered "tainted" underneath the firmament where Mikado is (remember people down there are referred to by the authorities as "unclean" if I recall right)... in essence, Mikado was a new beginning of this world. Using the Reactor to blow it up is (even if extreme) a mean to an end: prevent further corruption from the past to besmirch the future. Even Merkabah and Flynn stay behind and die to the black hole because they've become "unclean" themselves for being down there (this even explains why Isabeau was "unclean" herself, as she was exposed to manga from the past and was using a much jealously guarded gift such as being able to "read" to get emotionally attached to something that really doesn't belong on her world and is considered "unclean" now). I know it is difficult to argue with our own logic on how this is "Lawful", but one has to go beyond the point of just being "goody two-shoes" and think on what would it really take to "save" the gift of a new beginning (the kingdom of Mikado). Atlus' is also really gambling on the perception that "God is really evil" that most non-religious people hold when not going deeper on the reasons why some of God's supposed punishments feel so unfair (just bring the Old Testament into the subject with not really religiously-savvy people and watch the shitstorm that follows). The Reactor plot and its eventual fallout on the Law ending really achieve a likely anti-climatic feel to the whole thing, as in reality itself, good deeds do not merit necessarily a grandiose compliment in themselves: but they're just the fair or better things to do regardless. Flynn's statue on the ending (think of it as the cross on a church) is the reminder that he was the Messiah and his sacrifice finally bought not only peace for all the suffering souls underneath the firmament: but means a completely blank slate for humanity to thrive on. Amusingly enough, that peace never lasts long because of the Devil's own machinations to keep overthrowing that peace and human ambition that proves how terrible we can really be (as much as on the Chaos Ending... Evil itself is destructive and as long as there's a human ambition to live a more harmonious life in the grace of God, things will eventually work the other way around too). If you consider it, even in the SMT world: real neutrality is just an illusion. Just as in real life, we're experts on undermining anything we don't believe in (good or bad, is always subjective to your personal perception, which means you'll never be a beholder of absolute truth).

Nyarly: Can you beat Shin Megami Tensei IV without fusing demons? Mido: *sadness noise*

Thank you for playing this game and make a video about it. I haven't played this game, since I didn't manage to get it for my collection, so it's always nice to see good gameplay video about this and others in the series. I also liked this challenge-style playthrough so I can't wait to see your next episode if it comes. However one major this I liked the most was this pretty detailed information you gave us here and what has also been present in other videos of yours. So if you can, would you think about playing other games in the series, give them a similar treatment, but more of an comparison rather than challenge. I've been playing Shin Megami Tensei 1& Kyūyaku Megami Tensei and this far really enjoying them. Since you have a'lot of knowledge and experience for this series, I think you can come up a'lot of interesting stuff to say about older Megami Tensei games.

11:36 "And because he's a grass type Pokemon, he's super weak to fire."

I've found on y pacifist run that Lham Dhearg resists Physical and Guns, so he's actually great against both the medusa and minotaur despite his low level and lack of attack options. Even if he just stands there passively, giving everyone else a free press turn and tanking blows is highly useful.

Awesome. Don't really see SMT-related challenges, so this was refreshing

You put some really great effort into this even with some barriers you had to go through from your recording. Mad respect, this was very enjoyable to watch! 👍👍👍

I actually decided to get SMT4, my first in the main line, after watching some of these videos while waiting for Nocturne to rerelease. I like how even though you're explaining what's happening, this video is still lite on the spoilers.

I have to say, listening to Travis Willingham panic as assorted video game characters never gets old.

I like how minotaur and medusa are the first 2 bosses. It's straight up a reference to Digital devil story: megami tensei since they are also your first 2 bosses.

Ngl I’m so glad you finally started doing this kind of video. I’d love to see more challenges like this from other mega ten games!

Great video man that was interesting. I asked some questions about it on twitter but I like that you went in depth on this in a video

So the reason Tenkai appears resistant to magic attacks is because he is. According to the wiki, he has resistances to all attack types(Phys through Force) and is completely immune to OHKO spells(Light and Dark).

Hey Nyarly thanks for showing off smt 4 it's been a blast playing it for myself. ...also thanks for showing off how game changing skill mutate can be with the whisper mechanic.

My five year struggle to beat a JRPG without fusion

I think this was the video to get me interested in Megaten, so thanks for introducing me to my favorite JRPG ever

About Kenji: early in game you can complete quest about returning a child from forest, and you get Silver necklace that nullifies Bind, but in fact it nullifies Ancient Curse at all. (I was really amazed when discovered this on my first playthrough)

I'm glad I found your channel. It seems all I had to do was watch some Nocturne memes to "unlock" your channel in the algorhythm lol.

This was awesome, Nyarly. All that in just 30+ minutes!

Impressive, you finished the game quite easily despite the challenge which was quite hard and a few game overs left and right. I really enjoyed this vid.

in a run like this i feel Angel would be like one of the best demons ever because she evolves, and will eventually turn into Seraphim who has some n i c e skills

Now it’s time for apocalypse.

When they finally make smt game challanges: *IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS*

really fascinating concept, really appreciate the content

I’ll come back to this after I finish the game, I’m about 30 hours in and fuse a lot in the game, almost every time I level up or get a new demon; this challenge sounds like total hell

this really coulda been a whole LP i'd love to see all of this gonna do more challenge?

Awesome video. Keep it up Nyarly!

i love challenge runs i'm even doing one of my own rn it's a solo run of etrian odyssey iv and i'm having a blast challenge runs really test your knowledge of the games

So "Shin Megami Tensei IV. Difficulty: European Extreme", got it.

Isn’t neutral the only route you get all the terminals?

You must be the biggest mad lad to play the entire game without fusion, keep up the good work!

As someone who's doing an SL1 Run of Dark Souls, challenge runs are really entertaining tbh, they change the way you play a game so much and opens up a whole other difficulty curve not usually found in a regular session.

.... I couldn't do this, nope not at all.... I refuse to play without my precious Alice-chan.

at the beginning they do not say "random stuff"...at least the first line is Psalms 22: Eli Eli, lama azavtani (אלי אלי, למה עזבתני) - oh god oh god, why did you leave me? (My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?) during the demon fusion 2 other Hebrew words are also shown: "אמת" (emet) - truth and "איפור" (ipur) - make up (like the stuff people put on their face...no idea what it has to do with fusing demons...)

Yes, please do more of these. It was amazing.

please do more stuff like this, it was a really fun watch

Asmodeus in a tux and a nice hat for the wedding

Try with permadeath, meaning every demon who dies needs to get released

I’d absolutely love to see more of these

This is awesome bro would love too see more

Watched so i could see my boi Mastema. The best of bois.

Devil Surivor 2 Anguished One's route without doing the "social links"

Oh this gon be great. Good on ya Nyarly!

I’ll say this much Your series has made me decide I wanna play SMT

Me, listening to the video not knowing the references: I like your funny words magic man.

How about a challenge run where you can’t use demons at all and have to rely purely on your protagonist Sounds like hell to me but hey, it might be the one case where nocturne is easier than most of the series

This was pretty fun to watch!

I have come back to this video to say that this video was the one that inspired to finally playing SMT's main series (as I had only played Persona). SMTIV is an awesome game.

I’ve been playing this recently and cool to see a challenge run

Super late to these comments, but just wanted to share an experience I had with IV. Touching on evolution, I had a Divine demon in my Burroughs at all times. Right from Angel I kept having it evolve right up to Cherub

Cool video m8. Hope to see more stuff like this

Goodness this video is almost a year old now and I still love watching it. Also, “the neutral ending is basically impossible to get without religiously following a guide.” I look at myself, who accidentally got locked into the neutral route without even trying... pure dumb luck I call it.

Ah yes, RNGesus, our one true Lord who doth loves to forsake us often

How about 'beating SMT 4 without giving the protagonist attack magic'

Man I want to do this!! Haven’t finished the video but sounds so fun

Good ol SMT content. You love to see it

I think it could be pretty interesting to see this exact same challenge done in Apocalypse

But the real question now is: Can you beat Devil Survivor using only the protagonist?

I want to see this for apocalypse

it's cool how you learned more about this game from doing this challenge.

More of these pls!

Bruh, I'm a RPG veteran and I can't even beat SMTIV without handicaps. You gotta be some RPG god to do this without losing your sanity in the process.

Also, something about the Terminal Guardian: Yes, the demons he fights you with are in a certain order, not tied to his location...but his cosplays ARE dependent on the location. They actually gave every cosplay voiced lines for every one of his fights.

20:12 this is even funnier to listen too now cause after hearing travis in so many other roles and finding out he’s a big scaredy-cat when it comes to the supernatural, this just comes off as him trying to dissuade someone from taking a spooky deal.