Shin Megami Tensei II/Characters
Hawk/Aleph
The main character in the game, he starts out as an amnesic gladiator. As soon as he becomes a citizen of the Center, he discovers that he was designed to be the Messiah, destined to save the world.
In the 'Neutral' alignment ending, prior to Aleph's battle with YHVH, he is forewarned that by defying God's Will, Aleph will suffer a never-ending cycle of punishment, as YHVH would torture Aleph, kill him, reincarnate him, and continue torturing him until the end of time for committing the 'Ultimate Sin' -deicide. See more information in Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne's Character section, under the name Jyoji Hijiri.
- Badass: Not only was he designed to be one, but by the end of the game, HE KILLS GOD HIMSELF!
- Badass Normal: Like the first game protagonist, he learns no magic whatsoever.
- One Man Army: Regarded as one by all sides by the end of the game.
- Badass Long Hair
- The Beast Master
- Dancing Is Serious Business: Not only does it feature into the plot (seriously, you have to win a disco competition at one point, whereupon it's revealed Aleph is damn good at dancing), it is also one of Aleph's most successful demon recruitment options, to the point demons are so impressed how much style he puts into his dancing that that alone will convince them to join on the spot.
- Designer Babies: Not really a spoiler.....but the exact details of this are a severe Mind Screw.
- Dreadful Musician: Aleph trying to sing will instantly drive demons into incoherent rage, many believing it being an attempt to kill them.
- Dude Where's My Respect: Averted hard. Being the Messiah tends to make many demons outright terrified to piss you off by the end of the game, and merely namedropping who you are can get them to join you, especially if they are Law aligned.
- Expy: Jesus
- Fate Worse Than Death: Promised one in the Neutral Ending.
- Katanas Are Just Better: All his concept art depict him with a katana...And 2 guns.
- Neutral Good: Like the first game protagonist, his alignment is set to Light, and regardless of ending, he is ultimately fighting in the name of humanity or what's left of it.
- The Messiah: Created as one.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: It's pretty thick between himself and Hiroko, and lots of characters comment on it.
Hiroko
The main heroine of the game, she is initially paired up with him after he becomes a citizen of the Center. However, she decides to go against their will and do whatever you want, and is basically with you for the rest of the game on all alignment paths.
- Badass
- Action Girl
- Action Mom of Aleph.
- Combat Stilettos: remake takes the height Up to Eleven.
- Expy: the Virgin Mary Satan explicitly lampshades this very fact in the Law ending.
- Hilarity Ensues: Virtually everything she does to Daleth during the Infidelity Sap arc.
- Hot Shounen Mom: Of the Hero. Albeit in a weird, Mind Screw way.
- Megaton Punch: Gets a rather amusing version of this in one Demon Negotiation where a demon gives you the choice of having her sing, dance, or Nudge Nudge them for their cooperation, and if you pick option number three, she gets pissed, punches the demon while using a rather amusingly named punch named after herself, and the battle will immediately end with the demon running off.
- Ms. Fanservice: In universe, demons find her pretty damn hot (and by human standards she is pretty good looking as well), and this is so pronounced demons of all types want to either kiss or...you get the idea...with her in occasional Demon Negotiations. Even if the demon(s) in question doesn't/don't have the body parts to perform such acts.
- Parental Incest: Implied in the Neutral ending, where she tells the Hero they have to rebuild the Earth as they walk off into the sunset, which is very similar to what the Heroine of the first game's purpose was. Also, in game, both she and the Hero are shipped together by various characters, and they even have some commented upon Unresolved Sexual Tension.
- Stripperiffic: Wears what can be best described as a female templar outfit meets a dominatrix outfit.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: TONS of this with Aleph, commented on by many characters.
- Whip It Good: She has a whip wrapped around her.
Beth
- Action Girl
- Bodyguard Crush: On Aleph. It doesn't end the way she hoped.
- Combat Stilettos
- Expy: Of Yuriko from the first game. Except she's good.
- Famous Last Words: We will never meet again...
- Heroic Sacrifice
- Nice Hat: Wears a rather fitting cross patterned head wrap.
- Shallow Love Interest: Intended as such in universe. Subverted by the fact she does a genuine Heroic Sacrifice and gives you her soul in death as a powerup.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: of Hiroko, except with slightly better starting stats.
- Zettai Ryouiki
Louis Cypher/Lucifer
In Shin Megami Tensei II, Lucifer again takes the form of Louis Cypher, in order to convince you to follow the Chaos path. If you chose the Law and Neutral Paths you will face him in battle, but in the Chaos path he will join your party in order to stop Satan and YHVH. According to dialogue, he was ordered by YHVH to cause The Great Destruction with Kuzuryu, the nine-headed dragon that makes up the mountains of Makai, but Lucifer plans to use Kuzuryu against YHVH instead. If Aleph's alignment is neutral, and he defeats Lucifer without the aid of Satan, Lucifer will warn Aleph that Kuzuryu must be defeated as well since it will go berserk without him to control it.
- Badass
- Badass in A Nice Suit: His human look.
- Four Star Badass: All beings in Makai consider him their archcommander.
- Benevolent Boss: As opposed to YHVH, who made Astaroth his personal Butt Monkey, Lucifer gave him a job as one of the leading generals of Makai. Further, Lucifer is pretty laid back, letting his subordinates run their little sections of Makai without much interference, and even Crowley, who is rather mad about not being able to host a Walpurgis Night (due to Lucifer's orders), refuses to speaks ill of him.
- Blondes Are Evil: Or at least have a contested alignment, unless you are in the Law alignment, which plays this straight.
- This trope even lets you tell who is the real Louis Cypher when Astaroth impersonates him.
- Graceful Loser
- Six Winged Angel: Two forms of this, no less.
- Lucifer is Good: True, he hates YHVH, but he honestly does want what's left of humanity to survive.
- The Charmer: Very polite, honest, accepts his defeat with grace and simply asks Aleph to save his people.
- Took a Level In Kindness: In SMT1 he was the same as YHVH. In this one he is very much interested in seeing humanity survive as he is demonkind. His ending is one of the only times in the series that Chaos actually FEELS like a happy ending, rather than just a world of vice and freedom.
- Villains Out Shopping: When not actively planning to screw over God, he can usually be found in the bars across the game, knocking back a drink.
Zayin
A devoted member of the Center and its rules, he eventually decides that his masters are not what they seem and vows allegiance to the forces of Law themselves. And in the name of the people he fights against the Center, trying to recruit the hero to his side along the way.
He turns out to be 1/2 of Satan. He merges with Set to become Satan. In the endings of the Neutral and Chaos alignment paths, Satan decides to use the Megiddo Arc (a powerful laser weapon within Eden) to destroy all life on the planet as his judgment. He is killed by Aleph before he can carry out his plans, and his death prompts the appearance of YHWH. In the Law alignment ending, he carries out the plan successfully, but accuses YHVH for committing the sin of genocide afterward and chose to align with Aleph, however, he crumbles to dust after defeating his creator.
- Badass: In his real form.
- Bare Fisted Monk: As a human.
- Defector From Decadence
- The Dragon: ultimately, to YHVH, except on the Law path
- Eldritch Abomination: Just... look at his One Winged Angel form.
- Even Evil Has Standards/Enemy Mine/Satan Is Good: If you pick the Law path
- Hypocrite: He betrays the Center for their plotting to eliminate the undesireables in the construction of the Thousand Year Kingdom, but does (or attempts to do) the same thing with the Meggido Ark.
- Knight Templar
- Multi Armed and Dangerous: His One Winged Angel form.
- Satan
Gimmel
- Bishonen: No in the real world he looks to be a bald naked skinny guy in a machine.
- Beware the Nice Ones.
- Crystal Spires and Togas - Where he lives in Arcadia and what the general clothing choice is in his assigned area. It's all an illusion.
- Harp of Femininity: Always carrys around one.
- Long Haired Pretty Boy: No.
Daleth
- The Anti Messiah: Was created to specifically oppose Aleph, though he claims its the other ways around.
- Jerkass -> Nice Guy (after Love Redeems)
- Love Redeems
- Never My Fault He blames you for Beth's Death. Claiming you used that young woman as a shield.
- Team Rocket: A one man version of this, even.
- The Rival