The Let's Play Archive

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2

by Dragonatrix

Part 13: Feinne's Notes: Monday Mornings

As far as Unkillable goes, the only real threat to that in this map is Gagyson's Elec Dance. Once he's lit that candle and failed to kill someone with it you shouldn't be at much risk. The Devil Speed + Animal Leg combo to push ahead to the last guy is one of your best bets, since it makes sure you get up into his face quickly enough to stop him and get Mana Bonus. I actually 100% agree with the skill cracks Dragonatrix picked, Amrita is easy to get and not as useful as you'd expect. Ailments are a problem, but there's a Race Skill that is superior to Amrita in every way which pretty much obsoletes it outside of the incredibly rare case you'd want to use it in battle. I don't agree that Elec Dance (and Dances in general) are absolutely the best elemental skills, I like single target -dynes for general use. Dances are pretty good before you get -dynes and against bosses that are alone in their group though.

Let's talk a bit about some of our new demons.

Kikimora: I think I extolled the virtues of these lovely ladies earlier but they're goddamn amazing. They're Femmes, which give them a great group heal from the map as a Race Skill. They're solid healers in battle as well, and if you create them with fusion instead of buying them you can usually set things up to give them two elements and take good advantage of their above average Magic stat. Their only downside is that they're a bit fragile, and if their weakness gets hit they can fold really fast. Still, they're the best non-unique demon we have right now.

Tam Lin: Just fuse this guy as soon as you can, he's really powerful and there's no reason not to be using him right now. He's a very useful physical character and his Phantasm Race Skill lets you move around the battlefield much more freely.

Hare of Inaba: Hare of Inaba is a pretty bad demon with some mitigating factors that pretty much mean you're going to use him in spite of his awfulness. First of all, his Devil Speed Race Skill is amazingly useful and until we can fuse a better Wilder he's our only option. Secondly, he's able to heal at all and that's not nothing. However, even with a bunch of passives backing them up they're never going to be very good at anything offensive. Their vulnerability to fire and ailments is also not ideal. Still, you'll be using them several times today whether you like it or not so best to get used to them.

Ogre: Hate them, terrible demon. They hit reasonably hard, but it's just not worth carting around a guy who'll die to the first hint of enemy magic. If you're not interested in doing Free Battles to skip past the awkward level or two where you might not have a better option than to bring an Ogre I guess you could use one but don't expect much out of them and be careful what you engage.

Hairy Jack: These guys are a bit better than Ogres, they're less shockingly fragile and Animal Leg is actually pretty useful. They're not quite as good at dealing out damage but early on most physical attackers kind of suck compared to magic anyway so you might as well go with the slightly weaker but able to live at all Hairy Jack.

Agathion: So yeah when I suggested doing Free Battles basically I meant that you should get high enough level to fuse these to accompany your Kikomora in parties that don't need mobility gimmicks. Then you've got two solid casters that cover different elements. These guys are pretty okay, though you'll get some things to replace them soon so if it's feeling painful to try and get them this early don't worry too much about it.