Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne/YMMV


  • Breather Boss: Thor the second time. Sure, he'll start using Dragon Eye when he hits half health, but really, you should be able to drop him from his full 8000 to 5000 fast, and then finish him in one turn.
    • Mara, even though he heals himself to full health on every turn. His strongest attack is Hades Blast, which isn't that bad even though it can Mute you. You're also forced to fight him during a full Kagutsuchi, thus enabling Bright Might. Bring a few demons that have it, and he'll be dead before he gets a turn.
      • Taunt + Tetrakarn = Dead Mara.
    • To a much greater extent, Mithra is often considered by players to be the easiest boss of the game. The majority of his turns are wasted on Expel or Death spells, which are inaccurate and easily blocked by that point, meaning that even after using Dragon Eye, he'll end up not doing much. He is also quite frail for such a late-game boss, as he can be killed within less than 4 turns with little trouble. The only thing that can (not necessarily) mess you up in this battle is that you can't be immune to Death AND Expel at the same time at this point of the game (though your demons certainly can).
  • Crazy Awesome: What demon, after giving the world's most epic evil laugh, shoots lasers out of his eyes that causes a powerful, Almighty-type, multi-target attack with a chance of instant Expel-type death? Metatron. That's who!
  • Complete Monster: Chiaki, who is the only person to be explicitly called "evil."
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: "World Map -Last Area-", and pretty much the whole soundtrack.
    • This is one of the many normal battle themes. It's also the theme that plays when you fight the Demi-Fiend as a Bonus Boss in Digital Devil Saga. This is the Kotowari (Reason) boss theme, playing only against three bosses when they decide to get serious.
      • Or hell, even the pre-boss music. "The next thing you see is going to beat the shit out of you. Prepare for that."
        • Heck, in this game, all the pre-boss musics bathes in pure awesome; we have the theme that plays before a Fiend battle.It says: "You'll be fighting something horrifying. Brace yourself". On the same vein, this is the epic song that plays just before the True Final Boss. One of the most Oh Crap inducing songs you'll find.
        • Boss Battle - The lyrics help convey the intensity of a difficult battle, and the hollow, disembodied, distorted sound with which they're recited serves to underscore the notion that if the beings singing this ever were humans from the world we know, they're something (or somewhere) horribly different now.
      • Isamu's theme song fits incredibly well in the scenes it plays in.
    • Metatron's Theme. There is no other song in the universe perfect enough to portray the feeling that you're practically giving God the finger at this point, and have inflicted his wrath. Bonus points for including a remix of the Shin Megami Tensei Law Theme.
    • Tokyo Conception. Soft piano, for Yuko's lines... and then the booming organ and the dark riffs pitch in, and the world dies.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Lucifer and the "True Demon" Demi-Fiend get this a lot. The fact that their agenda involves destroying all life seems to be glossed over at best. People forget all too often Chaos is at least as horrible as Law, and Lucifer is its heart and soul.
  • Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Combined with Gratuitous English considering the game has nothing to do with music. At least the title Lucifer's Call made more sense.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Matador, with a bit of overlap with Colbert Bump. Prior to the game's Maniax update, Matador was simply a fiend that looks like a skeleton dressed as a matador that is ready for a bullfight. Cue his jarring "Wake-Up Call" Boss battle and now Matador has become a symbol for the franchise of "Never, EVER think buffs/debuffs are pointless. Always invest in them. They will save your ass from being pounded flat."
  • Fan Nickname: The Main Character is called Naoki Kashima in the radio plays based on the game.
  • Fashion Victim Villain: Hikawa's got an amazing pajama-esque suit and M-shaped widow's peak.
  • Hell Is That Noise: Shikome's scream whenever it attacks.
    • Daisoujou's scream whenever it uses Meditation.
  • Les Yay: Fun fact, having a female demon use Seduce (high chance of recruiting male demons when used by a female demon) or wooing (high chance of recruiting female demons when used by a male demon) can work on other female demons, while a male demon using either on another male disgusts the target and results in a guaranteed fail.
    • It doesn't work so much as it doesn't not work. A female demon's chances of recruiting another female demon using Seduce are exactly the same as if trying to negotiate normally. One would imagine that female demons are a bit more comfortable about being hit on by someone of the same sex than male demons.
  • Narm: Listen to Daisoujou when he uses a physical attack. White Rider using God's Bow is also pretty Narmy.
    • Whenever Trumpeter speaks.
    • Every time Black Rider uses a spell. Heeeeee!
  • Nightmare Fuel: The moment when the Young Boy drops the wriggling, bug-like Magatama on your eye and it burrows into your brain? That'll do it.
    • Even before that, the idea of the Conception itself. And that flash of light, followed by the Magatsuhi flowing out from buildings you see before Tokyo wraps itself up into a ball? That's humanity being wiped out in the blink of an eye without a fighting chance!
    • Kabukicho Prison. Just...Kabukicho Prison. It's an abandoned building filled with empty rooms, some of which have voices from nowhere. And then the Mirage flips the building, turns everything white, except for the streaks of blood on the ceiling, and the giant, golden shutters. Behind most of those shutters are jail cells/torture chambers filled with Manikins.
    • The Reveal as to the true identity of Hijiri.
  • So Cool Its Awesome: The game is just that awesome... even if you could actually become the AntiChrist.
  • That One Boss: Matador, who gets the honor of being pictured in the Atlus That One Boss page. With the right strategy, he's not too difficult, but he's the first boss in the game that you won't be able to beat without fusing a party specifically to counter him.
  • That One Level: That fucking cursed hallway in the Second Kalpa. Your HP gets cut in half every 5 or so steps, there are level 60+ demons that always seem to get through Repel and the only way to get out is to retrace your steps all the way back to the beginning.
    • Actually the Cursed Hallway is optional, Mandatory later on to get a key but you do get a solid 250,000 macca as a reward for reaching the end before the key event, and the exits are very close to the walls. If anything, that is a solid area to level grind if you know which demons inhabit the hallway.
    • The lower levels of the Third Kalpa definitely count, too. You have to run around and flip switches while being shot at by Dante. Get caught by him, and he knocks your party around and sends you back to the beginning. In the second part, not only are the switches in mazes of invisible walls, Dante resets them after he catches you.
      • The top level's not easy, either; it's a gigantic maze filled with one-way doors, and some of them teleport you if a certain stat isn't high enough. The only way to be sure that you won't get thrown all over the map is to have all your stats at 25 or higher, which would require absurd amounts of grinding at this point.
  • That One Sidequest: The Labyrinth of Amala in its entirety. The mandatory parts put you through the wringer constantly and remind you it's particularly hard to assemble a powerful team capable of resisting continuous assaults (many back attacks, particularly) at the beginning. The optional Grave Run is also particularly tough, even with the endgame stats. Granted, the rewards are also proportional: reaching the end of the Fifth Kalpa before the Tower of Kagutsuchi nets you the sixth ending and Pierce, and the Grave Run gives you an extra Press Turn when you reach the First Kalpa's first Burial Chamber in a New Game+.
    • Also, in the Fifth Kalpa, one can find the soul selling an obscenely overpowered Girimekhala (which also carries Pierce).
    • Puzzle Boy if you want to obtain all the Magatama in the game.
  • What an Idiot!: Ongyo-ki. As long as you keep hitting the real one, he'll do very little besides buff himself. He even does this after the effects are maxed out.