Devil Survivor/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Accidental Innuendo: The game does this itself when describing the Gigolo in Naoya's profile as a "flamboyant man", immediately followed by "What could their relationship be?". The fact that Gigolo is unambiguously revealed to be gay on one path doesn't help.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: It's sometimes hard to tell if Naoya's truly a bad guy or not.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Check it out.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse - On Pixiv, Naoya has 10 pages of fanart devoted to him, compared to Atsuro's 6. Yuzu most likely has around that amount as well, though it's harder to tell as merely typing "Yuzu" will yield pictures of other characters.
  • Evil Is Sexy:
    • During the fight against Jezebel, you can fight evil clones of Amane who likes to let their jacket almost unzipped, revealing their chests unlike the original Amane.
    • Some view Naoya this way.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple - If Naoya is in a pairing, fanart and fanfiction shows that it will most likely be with the protagonist.
  • Game Breaker: Some skill combinations certainly count. Most notable, however, is Drain. It does Almighty damage (which means that 99.9% of enemies can't resist, null, deflect, or absorb it), is surprisingly damaging, and robs the enemy of their HP and MP while replenishing yours.
    • Also, Drain Hit+Power Hit+Any Phys passive buff.
    • Holy Dance, which can do random amount of almighty damage. Best used against bosses, who usually won't have partners, thus allowing the full brunt of the random damage to go to a single target.
    • And also: Tyrant + Megidolaon + leader with Magic Yang = free one-turn kill every turn. And if you've got Awakening as well, even better!
    • Petra Eyes is extremely useful, at least on the first run, since petrified characters can be killed in one hit with luck no matter the HP or level. Being an Atlus game filled with Goddamned Bats where a huge part of them aren't resistant.
    • Pierce bypasses resistance to, nullification of, and draining of physical attacks, unless the demon's name starts with "Bel" and ends with "dr". Pair this up with Deathbound and you can demolish bosses that would otherwise make a physical assault hopeless, such as Belzeboul and Naoya.
    • Beast and Kishin demons on the same team. Beasts let you move again after you attack, and Kishins let you attack twice.
      • Even better, try Kishins and Vile / Dragon type demons. As long as your opponent doesn't have a demon of the same type, you can attack for two turns without the other team even touching you.
    • Multi-Strike is also an extremely powerful attack in Overclocked. It costs less hp than other physical abilities and works off of Agility. Put this on a physical-oriented MC and work on boosting his agility, and he'll almost always go first and pretty much instantly kill all three enemies in one turn. Combined with Pierce, you can kill almost everything instantly. Combined with Phys Drain instead, and you'll heal yourself to full against anyone with Phy Repel (fairly common near the end).
    • In Overclocked, the new Auto-Skill Pierce+ is arguably this when used correctly. It grants the effects of Pierce to the entire team. Frustrated you get another Phys-oriented character and have to bench them because you only have 1 Pierce, in a game where lots of enemies later on have resistance to Phys? No problem! Pierce+ allows you to use two Physical-oriented characters and thus their massive damage capabilities. Plus, since it's an Auto-Skill that grants a Passive Skill effect, you're essentially getting a fourth Passive slot; this allows you to make otherwise impossible combinations of skills with Pierce to create an even more destructive team.
    • We also can't forget some player-created demon-skill combination. For example, usually the biggest weakness of a Squishy Wizard is their physical defense. No problem, pass on Phys Repel to one via fusion, and you now have a magic user that is practically immune to Phys attacks and also has high resistance to magic because of their stat focus. This allows demons of all kinds last a LOT longer past their normal practical use because of the skills you give them. This is easier still in Overclocked with the addition of the Demon Compendium. The only problem thus, is how deep your pockets go.
    • Lastly, Victory Cry, which is available only late-game, but replenishes 20% or your HP/MP after every fight. When you can replenish enough MP to cast one powerful spell (say, Holy Dance or Megidolaon) + one Prayer (full party heal) every single turn, you know you're good to go.
  • Goddamned Bats: Goddamned Berserkers with their Goddamned high criticals with their Goddamned extra turns and their Goddamned Endure (Paired with Decarabia's Shield-All and having healing capabilities, these are the most frustrating enemies in the game - also it's near impossible to mimic the strategy well).
    • Alternatively, replace with any enemy that likes spamming heal spells. Jack Frost trios are the usual culprit.
    • Goddamned Jaki type enemies with their Goddamned "Bind" ability. These make the civilian rescue missions even more frustrating when they show up.
    • Goddamned Dragon type and Vile type enemies with their ability to attack from a distance with no counter attacks. These also make the rescue missions a pain in the ass.
    • Goddamned Mothmen and their Goddamned Mazan spells and Goddamned Media and Goddamned Devil Speed. Hope your demons are up-to-date when you first encounter them...
    • Also, Goddamned Loreleis that repeteadly spam Mute spells with their high speed and make your casters lose turns.
  • Goddamned Boss: Beldr, particularly on a New Game+. Hello, level 30-ish boss, eat my level-99 demons' Megidolaon! Oh wait I can't, I have to punch him with Devil's Fuge. Stupid Norse Mythology.
    • On Atsuro's route, you get to fight Naoya. He likes to spam Devil Speed to go all over the map. Cooooool.
  • Ho Yay: Loki, as he reveals when talking to Yuzu.

"You think you're pretty hot, don't you? I don't care about you! My love is for [Protagonist]!

    • Arguably Foe Yay, too.
      • Not surprising, considering his relation to Odin's horse, Slepnir.
  • Iron Woobie - Keisuke refuses to feel sorry for his ideals being cruelly subverted, despite suffering physical abuse and emotional torment as a result
  • Magnificent Bastard: Naoya.
  • Moe - Amane. All that dignity, quiet strength and deep faith.
  • Nightmare Fuel: This is Mega Ten, so it's kind of par for the course. Of particular note is Keisuke's death scene if you fail to stop Kaido from murdering him. The fact that it plays out with small sprites instead of "glorious 3D" is probably the only thing preventing the game from getting an automatic M rating just for this scene... but the cutesy sprites only serve to make the scene worse on some levels.
    • And then there's Belberith. Oh god, twisted combo-demon Belberith. Even worse if you're a veteran SMT player and can pick out the component demons that form him.
    • Also, the UEM field will probably make you never want to stand near an electronic device for too long.
    • Heck, whenever Keisuke snaps out. Who'd thought the seemingly calm character portrait he has would SUDDENLY turn into a crazy psychopath full of complete anger?
    • Police + COMPs = Police Brutality turned Up to Eleven.
  • Paranoia Fuel: Atsuro notes that, judging by how they seem to be positively flourishing, the various convenient and Internet-based demon-related services accessed by the COMPs must've been around way before the Tokyo lockdown. Combine that with the characters' frequent pointing out that depending on the tamer, demons can cause lots of good or lots and lots of bad...
    • Then there's the microchips placed inside every electronic device in Tokyo, designed to all go off at the government's command, basically turning the city into a giant microwave oven. Once again, Atsuro is the one to find out this wonderful info.
  • Player Punch: If you make some bad choices during gameplay, expect this game to deliver at least one punch to the gut - to say nothing of Yuzu's ending...
  • Scrappy Level: Any mission that involves keeping demons from one end of the map and/or keeping NPC teams from dying. "The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard" goes without saying...
    • Especially notable is the second fight with Kudlak. Not only do you have to keep him from fleeing, but you have to make sure the NPCs in battle don't die, and a specific NPC has to land the ending blow or else it's heavily implied the character in question gets Killed Off for Real by her Demonic Possession. Not helping matters is the fact she averages roughly 30 damage at a time, whereas her target will knock her down to near-death every time. Note that only the death of the NPCs results in a Game Over, but any of the undesired results may warrant resetting.
      • Thankfully, the battle gets easier when you realize that Kudlak isn't immune to status effect spells. Combined with the game's quick save/load, Petra Eyes might not be such a Useless Useful Spell after all...
      • Still, the fact that he can heal from the ailment one turn later makes it a Luck-Based Mission
  • Scrappy Mechanic: Base Level plays a strong part in battle mechanics. You can only fuse demons your level or lower while most endgame demons are unique (only 1 in the party at once) and possibly requires having beaten some paths already to fuse, Master of None or physical based when every other enemy reflected physical attacks (this can't be bypassed by pierce), and the enemy will always have a level advantage on you. Oh and get used to have your demons obsoleted, no matter how good their stats are. And have fun with the endgame game enemies having a huge level spike, and the antigrinding making it hard to catch them if you don't do Yuzu's route first to disable it.
  • Tear Jerker - No matter the route you take, Honda's son will die.
  • That One Attack: If you try to go up against the Bonus Boss without heavy preparation, you will lose before you get a chance to hit him. If you try to go up against the Bonus Boss with heavy preparation, you will probably lose as soon as the word "Megidoladyne" appears on the screen.
    • Why is this attack so bad, you may wonder? First: It's Almighty, meaning nothing can resist, null or reflect it. Secondly, it's a field attack, which means that it hits every single one of your teams. Thirdly, it can and WILL be promptly unleashed without warning if the Bonus Boss thinks you're not giving it your all. Fourth, and lastly, it's power rises by 50% EVERY time he uses it. This attack is already strong enough at base power that it's pretty much a One-Hit Kill if you don't have max or nearly maxed MAG, and even then, at level 99 you'd still probably lose half your healt or so, but it'll eventually REALLY become a One-Hit Kill once he uses it enough times. So the solution is, defeat the Bonus Boss before he can use it enough times... Which is only consistently possible with a Game Breaker strategy.
  • That One Boss: Oh, Beldr... Really, any boss with 'Bel' in their name counts, but Beldr is the first, and Nigh Invulnerable. And only one character in your entire party can even hit him. And he can raise his mooks from the dead. And his mooks heal him if you don't re-kill them fast enough.
    • Not to mention his mooks have Petra Eyes+Mazan (Which spells instant death if you're unprepared/unlucky) and come loaded with HP+MP Drain and many multiple Ice/Lightning attacks that may make you lose precious turns.A real pain if you didn't take your time level grinding or skill hunting...
    • ... However, if you leave his mooks' squad leaders alive, they can't do any healing. And he can only resurrect mooks that are completely wiped off the map.
    • What's even better with Beldr is if you're a veteran SMT player and have figured out that pumping your magic stat for what it's worth is the best thing to do in most situations. Turns out Beldr is only weak to the devil's fuge, which is a physical attack. And every few turns, he launches off an attack that steals HP from every party member. Sucks for you if your attack stat sucks!
    • Belial. He can attack 3 times every turn, he's strong against everything except ice, and has about 3000 hp.
    • Jezebel and her Lethal Lava Land of a stage.
    • Beldr might be nigh invulnerable, Jezebel annoying, Belial unbelievably strong, but Babel's second form tops them all.Besides its high HP and virtually unlimited MP, it has the most powerful spell up to that point, Dual Shadow for a chance to use it twice in a row (which very few parties, if at all, can survive).And on top of that every single turn it will use a special move to heavily damage and silence all your characters, and shift elemental weakness.Seriously, anything except for a Zerg Rush of your best mages with Elec spells and physical with Pierce is destined to end up in failure.
    • Bonus Boss Lucifer gets a special mention for being pretty much impossible to defeat without RIDICULOUS preparation (we're talking about full level 99 custom teams, which takes DAYS of grinding)...and even then, there's still an impossibly large probability you'll lose. Lucifer on his own is extremely tough (where, if this was all it came to, mean you'd need one or two teams almost completely dedicated to healing and resurrecting), but he's accompanied by infintely respawning teams of incredibly powerful demons (among them Decarabias, Ariochs and even freakin' Astaroth) with computer-only boosted attributes, not stats, ATTRIBUTES, has three phases with different skills each and everytime he changes phase, he becomes fully healed. And it gets worse. WAY worse. Your face will be worth a million dollar shot when you see the words Megidoladyne appear in your screen. Hell, it's so bad that you pretty much HAVE to use a Game Breaker strategy to beat him.
  • Theiss Titillation Theory: Haru's clothing operates on this principle. Just look at her sprites and try to figure out how she isn't having a wardrobe malfunction every five seconds. Yuzu also has this to a lesser extent.
  • Unfortunate Implications: The Chick Yuzu is the designated complainer, has to have everything explained to her (and can barely understand for Atsuro's explanations), and if you follow her wishes? She leads you straight to the worst ending.
    • Conversely, she basically serves as a meta hint that while logical and sensible to want to escape (and to be fair, she DID NOT want to be involved in the hell that ensues), she's basically an early clue that escaping the city would be a highly negative choice, even if the player agrees with her. However, for anyone who has ever played a Mega Ten game, they would already know this would be a bad idea.
      • And the implications aren't really that unfortunate when you consider that every other female in the game is extremely competent, it's really only Yuzu who acts naive, and that's totally justified by the fact that she's just a scared teenage girl thrown into a catastrophe.
      • Fortunately, Yuzu's 8th Day in Overclocked largely subverts the trope, as the main goal and also the most noted value is to take responsibility for breaking the lockdown, which resulted in the angels going full-on Knight Templar on humanity, and eventually, in God abandoning humans forever, which is even noted by Metatron himself descending and going What the Hell, Hero?? on you. Hell, by the end, it arguably tops Gin and Haru's ending as the route that ends on the most positive note for humanity, and any and all negative implications of the original Yuzu route is made-up for in the end. Sure, it sucks for Honda, but he'd gone insane by then and he was completely unrepentant of anything he'd done. God's left humanity altogether too, but hey, no more Jerkass Council of Angels!
  • What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Arguably one of the darkest SMT games ever, and its only rated T!
    • Which is disturbing, because unlike Strange Journey, you actually get to watch people get murdered and bleed to death in this game, and the meaning of what happened in not diluted by the art style in any meaningful way.
  • The Woobie - Some view Naoya this way in Amane's ending. Some of the characters even feel sorry for him.
    • Haru seriously needs a hug.
      • And Honda.
      • Especially Honda, and even more so in Yuzu's 8th Day.
  • Woolseyism: Atsuro calls Yuzu "Yoohoo" in the English version. In the Japanese version it's "Sodeko" ("sleeve girl") which is a visual pun on the kanji of her name. Obviously that wouldn't work in English, although it sounds a bit weird when Yuzu complains that some people think that Yoohoo's her real name (which works better with the real-sounding Sodeko).
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