Shin Megami Tensei: if...: Difference between revisions

{{quote| ''...A peaceful everyday life...''<br />

''...A boring day after boring day''<br />

''...Our days of youth slowly passes by...'' }}

{{quote| ''What IF...''<br />

''that life was shattered to pieces?'' }}

{{quote| ''What IF...''<br />

''the school thrown into another world?'' }}

{{quote|''This is...''<br />

''...a story of children who were stranded in the Demon World...''|''Shin Megami Tensei: Ifif...'' intro.}}

''Shin Megami Tensei: Ifif...'' was the third [[Gaiden Game]] to be spun off from the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' franchise (the first being the little-remembered ''Majin Tensei'', and the second being ''Last Bible'', which came to America as ''Revelations: The Demon Slayer''). The title refers to two things: first is the concept of the game, which is a [[What If]] scenario in the SMT''Shin Megami Tensei'' universe, namely "what if a school was suddenly thrown into the Demon Realm?" The title and logo are also references to the arthouse British film ''[[If (Film)|If....]]'', where the developers seem to have gotten the school concept from (although all similarities really stop there, with one possible [[All of the Other Reindeer|exception]]). Sadly, this game will [[No Export for You|never be released outside of Japan]] due to this, but Aeon Genesis has announced a fan translation of this game is ongoing. [[A Worldwide Punomenon|If you]] can find an English patch available, sound off!

If this sounds [[Persona (Videovideo Gamegame)|just a bit familiar]], it should; many of the concepts introduced in ''Ifif...'' would eventually be expanded upon in ''Persona 1'', and the formerly anonymous main character of ''Ifif...'' even became a character in the early ''Persona'' games, putting ''Persona'' in the same continuity as ''Ifif...'' and the ''Devil Summoner'' games (which detail what'd happen if people knew about demons ''before'' a certain event in SMT''Shin Megami Tensei 1'', thanks to the events of ''Ifif...''). In other words, what started as one [[Gaiden Game]] ended up dovetailing into a huge [[Alternate Continuity]] that has ''eclipsed'' the original ''Shin Megami Tensei'' games in popularity.

The game begins with your main character (who you can choose the name and gender of, although canonically, the Protagonist is a girl named Tamaki) as an [[Ordinary High School Student]] at Karukozaka High School who is just about to go home for the day... and then, suddenly, things go very ''[[It Got Worse|wrong]]''. Your school doesn't seem to be on Earth anymore, demons roam the hallways, and a student named Hazama has gone missing... except he seems to be appearing to you as a kind of astral projection, taunting you. It'll be up to you and a partner of your choosing to get to the bottom of what is going on - and what Hazama may have planned for the school and the world.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|Reiko's ending in particular. The school is saved, most everybody makes it out alive, but Reiko and Hazama are never seen again after Reiko thanks Tamaki for helping to save Hazama from himself}}...}}

* [[Evil Laugh]]: Even at the very start of the game, Hazama appears before you and does this a ''lot'', cluing you in to the fact that he's got something to do with the weirdness going on. {{spoiler|The fact that he ''tries'' to draw out his overdone evil laugh at the start of the game is a hint that he's just putting on a front to try and hide his deep-seated emotional disturbance and is just acting the way he ''thinks'' a Demon Emperor should act.}}.

* [[Evil Overlord List]]: {{spoiler|Hazama runs into a whole bunch of these over the course of the game; this all springs, naturally, from the fact that he's a high-school kid who ''thinks'' he should be a Demon Emperor and doesn't really have the first clue how such a being should ''actually act''. (Contrastcontrast against [[Louis Cypher|a certain other well-known king of the Abyss in the same franchise]].)}}.

* [[Five -Man Band]]: Although you only ever get to take one human partner with you, your options do form something like this.

** [[The Hero]]: Tamaki/The Protagonist.

** [[The Lancer]]: Charlie.

** [[The Chick]]: Yumi.

** [[The Smart Guy]]: Reiko.

** [[Sixth Ranger]]: Akira (getting him to join you is... difficult).

*** [[The Big Guy]]: Atlus ''loves'' using [[Secret Character|these]] [[The Big Guy|three]] [[Sixth Ranger|tropes in conjunction.]].

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: {{spoiler|Hazama's is detailed in Reiko's path.}}.

* [[Hello, Nurse!]]: Hellooooooo, Miss Kayama!

** Of course, this isn't just played for laughs: {{spoiler|in Reiko's ending, it's revealed that Hazama fell desperately in love with her, but she rejected him as she felt a relationship with him would be wildly inappropriate; this is suggested to be the snapping point at which he decided to open the portal to the Demon World. It's also the reason that she's around to heal you even when bad things happen to all the other students and faculty, though; hurt and emotionally crippled as he is, Hazama can't bring himself to harm Kayama in any way.}}.

* [[It Got Worse]]: Whoever is in control of the Demon World seems to be doing this ''deliberately'' to the poor students of Karukozaka High. {{spoiler|Turns out Hazama is attempting to punish them for what he perceives as each of their sins against both him and society.}}.

* [[Jerkass]]: Charlie. He's perfectly happy to screw the whole school over if it means getting home. {{spoiler|Which is ''exactly'' what the two of you do in his ending.}}.

* [[Journey to Thethe Center of Thethe Mind]]: {{spoiler|The Final dungeon in Reiko's Pathpath. There is also [[Soundtrack Dissonance]] as the Law theme from ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]] 1'' and ''2'' play while you trod through Hazama's mind.}}.

* [[Kick the Dog]]: {{spoiler|Akiko rejected Hazama's love letter and tore it up, badmouthing him to her friends.}}.

* [[Lawyer -Friendly Cameo|Lawyer (Un?)Friendly Logo Cameo]]: Potentially a reason the game has never gotten a Western release; the lettering of the "if..." in the game logo is lifted ''directly'' from the {{[[media-|If_movieposter:If movieposter.jpg| movie of the same name}}]], and parts of the game concept also seem to borrow heavily from the movie as well (such as the school setting itself and {{spoiler|1=a major character rebelling and bringing down punishment on the school after [[All of the Other Reindeer|constant abuse]] - Malcolm McDowell's character in ''if....'', and Hazama in ''SMTShin IfMegami Tensei: if...''}}).

* [[Louis Cypher]]: {{spoiler|Conspicuous only in his near total absence. He never shows up to talk, you don't fight him, he isn't [[The Chessmaster]], and you can only even fuse him at level 99; making ''Ifif...'' one of the tiny handful of SMT''Shin Megami Tensei'' games where he doesn't have any kind of story impact. [[Epileptic Trees|Guesses]] about this aspect of the game abound.}}.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: In the World of Wrath, {{spoiler|after finding Ryuuichi and Akiko were turned to stone, the villain claims that smashing the stone ''might'' free them. If you don't take the bait, your partner [[But Thou Must!|does it instead]] -- killing the pair instead of freeing them. Cue [[Evil Laugh|Evil Laughter]] from Hazama and [[My God, What Have I Done?]] from your partner.}}.

* [[Recurring Boss]]: {{spoiler|Professor Otsuki, who keeps rebuilding his body in order to defeat you.}}.

* [[Samus Is a Girl]]: After a fashion. Not only was ''Ifif...'' the first game in the SMT''Shin Megami Tensei'' franchise to offer the option of a female protagonist, the ''Persona'' series retroactively made Tamaki the first ''canon'' female protagonist of an SMT''Shin Megami Tensei'' game.

* [[Seven Deadly Sins]]: Sort of. The dungeons are based on a major sin ({{spoiler|these being the punishments Hazama wishes to deal out to those who have "wronged" him}}), but there are only six sins represented. {{spoiler|One could make an argument for the "empty school" being symbolic of Pride and Hazama's mind being Wrath given how pissed he is at everything, but this isn't stated outright.}}.

** The worlds, in order: {{spoiler|Pride, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy OR Wrath (depending on your partner) and Greed.}}. The absent sin, {{spoiler|Lust}}, could potentially be represented by {{spoiler|Hazama himself, as his feelings towards both Akiko and Miss Kayama being rejected helped drive him into unleashing the Demon World.}}.

* [[Shaggy Dog Story]]: {{spoiler|Practically everything that happens in Sloth turns out to be pointless, beyond giving you access to the next area.}}.

* [[Suspicious Videogame Generosity]]: Played with in the Greed worldWorld, where there are about dozen or so chests outside the boss room: {{spoiler|opening none of them gets you a fight with an underleveled fox, taking all of them will force you to fight an overleveled god-like [[Multiple -Tailed Beast|nine-tailed]] [[Kitsune]], with various forms in-between.}}.

* [[Taken for Granite]]: {{spoiler|Ryuuichi and Akiko. If you take the 'Wrath' path, [[It Gets Worse.]]}}.

* [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]: {{spoiler|The last dungeon in Reiko's path is Hazama's ''mind''.}}.

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: {{spoiler|Both Otsuka and Hazama suffer from this in the end, Otsuka welding ever wilder cybernetics to his flesh while Hazama can't believe that he isn't omnipotent in the Demon World. If you have Reiko with you, you get to see all the steps of his breakdown that ''led'' to this whole mess.}}.

* [[What If]]: The entire concept of the game. Atlus probably didn't anticipate [[Cash Cow Franchise|what this would all]] [[Persona (Videovideo Gamegame)|lead to]] when first making the game.

* [[Where It All Began]]: If you take the three [[Super Nintendo]]-based SMT''Shin Megami Tensei'' titles (SMT''Shin Megami Tensei 1'', SMT''Shin Megami Tensei 2,'' and ''Ifif...'') as a kind of "trilogy" this applies after a fashion. SMT''Shin Megami Tensei 1'' begins in the dreams of the Protagonist of that game; {{spoiler|the [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] of ''Ifif...'' is the Mindscape of Hazama, using the same "dream" graphical effect from SMT''Shin Megami Tensei 1''}}.

* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: {{spoiler|Hazama, as you discover in the last dungeon of Reiko's path.}}.

* [[Yank the Dogs Chain|Yank The Dog's Chain]]: Cruelly used in {{spoiler|Sloth, when Hazama declares [[I Lied|he lied]] about setting free whoever found the ring hidden there.}}.

[[Category:Play StationPlayStation]]