Shin Megami Tensei Missable Achievements Guide (SNES) - RetroAchievements/guides GitHub Wiki
Set developed by Altomar and MeCKooLL, guide written by benit149
Hello, and welcome to my missable achievements guide for Shin Megami Tensei (“True Reincarnation of the Goddess”), a dungeon-crawling JRPG released for the Super Famicom, and is itself a successor to Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei for MSX, FM-7 and PC-88. It was never released to the West, so the only source of an English translation is Aeon Genesis’ fan translation.
The franchise’s premise is that the main character comes into possession of the Demon Summoning Program, allowing him to recruit, control and communicate with demons that have invaded the human world in order to contend with apocalyptic situations. The stories are often bleak, and mess with your preconceptions of how JRPG plots usually develop. The games are also known for being fiendishly difficult (no pun intended), with even regular enemy encounters being capable of destroying your party if you’re not careful.
The keys to survival will be both managing your human allies’ levels and gear, as well as recruiting demons and fusing them at the Mansion facility to create stronger minions, so long as they are at the hero’s level or lower. The maps are also unbelievably confusing and vague, so have a walkthrough with detailed maps on hand if you want to stand even a reasonable chance here.
BASIC GAMEPLAY TIPS
I’ll touch on how the game functions here, along with any tips to help you survive this gauntlet of a JRPG. This is primarily a dungeon crawler, though it takes place in modern Japan rather than your typical medieval setting. The only exception to this is the overworld, where you travel along a rudimentary representation of Tokyo, Japan as a blue icon. Battles are your standard affair of fighting against enemies using the typical commands you’d see in a JRPG (Attack, Defend, Magic and such), but there are some curve balls thrown your way which I’ll cover in further detail.
Hero Creation
At the very beginning, you are forced to distribute 18 points to four separate characters each (for 72 points total). Your protagonist is the Main Hero, or alternately the Neutral Hero. The first ally you meet is the Law Hero. The second ally is the Chaos Hero. The final one is the Heroine. You get to name all of them, though they do have default names if you’re interested in using those:
- Main Hero: Kazuya
- Law Hero: Yuji
- Chaos Hero: Takeshi
- Heroine: Yuka
The game’s cruelty towards uninformed players actually begins right here, even before a single battle occurs. If you don’t distribute the points to your four protagonists correctly, you could potentially screw yourself. There are no hints about what each character’s role in the party is, so you could be left blindly guessing how to allocate their stats. Here’s the ideal setup:
- Main Hero: 5 in Strength, Stamina and Speed, 2 in Intelligence, and 1 in Luck
- Law Hero: 5 in Magic, Intelligence and Speed, 3 in Stamina
- Chaos Hero: 6 points in Strength, Stamins and Speed
- Heroine: 5 in Magic, Stamina and Speed, and 3 in Intelligence
Main Hero does not learn any spells whatsoever, so Magic is a worthless stat for him. Conversely, Law Hero and Heroine are the de facto spellcasters, so you don’t want to invest in Strength too much for them. Chaos Hero can also use some magic, but it’s not very useful in the long run, so make him a physical attacker instead. If you follow this premise, you can allocate the points however you want – what I outline is just the suggestion I followed from InfinityDragon’s guide. You might also be wondering what the difference between Magic and Intelligence is. Magic is indeed referring to magical power. Intelligence is more about your character’s wit and ability to think cleverly, so it improves magical effect and evasion, as well as makes negotiating with demons a bit easier.
You also find Incense items in treasure chests throughout the game, which you’d want to devote primarily to Main Hero and Heroine. Law Hero and Chaos Hero can receive some if you feel you’re having trouble with a particular section. The most important Incense to give solely to Main Hero is Luck Incense, as it will be important for a late-game dungeon mechanic that checks his Luck stat.
I’m sure you’re asking, “Why are you referring to two of the protagonists as Law Hero and Chaos Hero?” This is tied to the alignment system, which I’ll cover momentarily. Main Hero and Heroine do not have default alignments of their own, so Main Hero is a Neutral character whose alignment can be adjusted. Heroine is pretty much along for the ride with Main Hero. Another important thing to note is that there will never be a time when all four protagonists are in the party simultaneously. You will be stuck with only three of them at max, with Main Hero present 100% of the time, meaning the others will be coming and going as the story dictates. This is why I said to focus most Incense usage on Main Hero and Heroine (at least the waifu being a final party member is a classic JRPG staple that remains intact here).
… I don’t need to treat that part as a story spoiler, do I? ¯ \ (ツ) / ¯
Spells and Status Ailments
So three of your allies have access to magic. Great! Unfortunately, figuring out what spells do is like learning a new language, adding yet another layer of confusion and frustration. It uses a sort of prefix/suffix system that you can work out somewhat, such as Dia referring to healing spells, Agi being fire elemental attacks, or similarly Zio being lightning. An incredibly important aspect of these spells is status ailments. Unlike standard JRPGs where they’re mostly a nuisance, they are a matter of life and death here. If you can inflict ailments like Sleep, Shock or Charm to a large swath of enemies at once, they’ll be completely at your mercy. If they do the same to you, consider that a game over. Some great tools you can use include the spell Mazio (light AoE lightning), Mazionga (heavy AoE lightning), and Nerve Bullets or Magic Bullets for your guns.
This is why you don’t want to rely on the Auto Battle feature too much unless you’re confident that you can defeat the enemies without many issues (the bullets I mentioned are fantastic for Auto Battle). One useful spell that could help you is Mapper, which shows a mini-map on the lower right corner for a set amount of time before it expires. I didn’t use it much other than dealing with darkened areas.
As far as spells that alter stats like attack and defense, those effects do stack. This makes the offense-boosting spell Tarukaja worth its weight in gold. Have any characters who can cast it do so repeatedly during a boss fight, and they should go down very easily. Some demons I recruited in my initial run who had this spell included Hobgoblin, Shuten-Douji, Jikokuten, and Cu Chulainn. If you get a demon with that spell, keep it handy for as long as needed. There is a limit to how many times you can stack a buff, but it's so high that bosses will most likely die before you reach it. Combine that with Magic Bullets which can be purchased late in the game, and you're in business.
Another crucial spell that speedrunners use is Estoma, which prevents all enemy encounters for the floor it is cast on. Chaos Hero can learn it at level 32, though it's not worth the trouble to get him that high for story reasons. The best monster you can fuse for this spell early on is Kushinada-Hime, a Megami-class demon, which has some fusion recipes available. These aren't all of the possible combinations - they're just ones I found with some minimal research:
- Archangel + Rusalka
- Kelpie + Rusalka
- Azumi + Jack Frost + Dryad (speedrunners use this)
Note that Kushinada-Hime is a Law-aligned demon, so if you're on the Chaos route, you'll need a different demon to cover for you. If you're going for the Tenma or Jesus Gears in their respective routes though, you will need to level up to 65 to equip either set, so some grinding will be required to master the achievement set. Otherwise, if you're generally fed up with the absurd encounter rate, Estoma is your lifeline.
Demon Recruitment
While your allies use spells, Main Hero’s unique job is to negotiate with demons and recruit them as minions. You’re probably thinking that recruiting demons is easy if you just look up a guide and learn how each one behaves, right? Nope. It’s completely random. You start off with the choice of talking to a demon with either a friendly or threatening attitude, then it’s just a guessing game from there. If they’re interested in becoming your minion, you then need the appropriate amount of cash and/or magnetite plus any requested items (typically Life Stones or Beads) to negotiate with them. They usually ask over and over again for more resources, so oblige them as much as possible until they finally relent.
You can only hold a certain number of minions until you gain further upgrades from an NPC named Stephen throughout the story. You also don’t want to keep all of your demons active at all times because they consume the magnetite you have on hand. I bet you’re asking, “What’s magnetite?” It’s a fictional resource that demons need to sustain themselves in the human world, so it is in high demand. You primarily obtain it by defeating demons, though not all types drop it.
One strategy I highly recommend you utilize is the ability to talk to a demon of the exact same type as one you have recruited. If it is a particularly nasty enemy to challenge head-on (looking at you two, Oni Jorou and Naga Raja), try to recruit one ASAP, immediately running away if you can should the negotiation fail. Once you get a demon and encounter another one in the wild, you can then talk to it, and it has a high chance of saying something like, “Take care of my buddy,” and leave. Note that I said a high chance, because there is the possibility of the demon spoiling for a fight regardless.
So you have a bunch of demons, but some of them might be falling off in utility or you just never use them. This is where the Jakyou (Mansion) facility comes into play, as it’s where you can fuse demons to produce a new one. You have the choice of fusing either two or three demons at once, but the biggest downside is that the new demon cannot be a higher level than Main Hero, or else he ‘won’t be able to control it’. I can’t really help you with this mechanic since the number of possible combinations are simply far too huge to cover here. Experiment, see what stats and spells they come with, and figure out which demons are best for you. I’ll highlight some demons I used for my own run, but this part is completely up to you.
Alignment System
As if you’re not spinning enough plates, this is something else you need to balance out as you progress the story. Remember, Law Hero and Chaos Hero have their alignments set, so it’s safe to say that they will be supporting opposite sides of the overall conflict. This won’t be important in the early game until the first major story moment. I will cover this in the missable achievements section, but you will be speaking to the leaders of the two factions in the hopes of averting a crisis. One represents the Chaos faction, and the other Law, so your alignment could begin to shift one way or the other. If you’re trying to stay Neutral and you mess up here, you can recover a bit later after that part of the story is over.
There will be a three-way branching point about two-thirds into the story where you’ll have to ultimately decide which faction you want to support. This decision will affect things such as available gear and bosses being restricted based upon your chosen alignment. The achievements portion of this guide will have a huge blaring alert as to what that specific jumping-off point is, and will be split into three different sections so you can focus on your chosen alignment. I’ll warn you of this with the line MAJOR ALIGNMENT ALERT!!, if you would like to use your browser’s find function to look it up.
Other minor actions can affect the alignment such as fighting demons with the same type of demons you’ve recruited, or using Healer facilities that are geared towards a specific alignment. Neutral facilities are just plain Healers, Law facilities are Messian Temples, and Chaos facilities are Gaian Temples. Once you reach that specific point in the story, you will be finding more of the Messian and Gaian facilities to help you slightly shift your alignment. There’s also a late-game dungeon with a method of shifting your alignment. If you wish to remain Neutral, you need to backtrack to find regular Healers. I recommend the one in Shibuya since it’s practically right there.
Unfortunately, there is no in-game method of checking how far your alignment has shifted. You will have to check the Most Recently Played section on your RA profile to see what your current alignment is. It’s represented by a range from 0 to 255, with 0-111 being True Law, 112-143 being True Neutral, and 144-255 being True Chaos.
Fan Translation Glitch Alerts
Aeon Genesis’ fan translation has three notable glitches that you will need to deal with. This short section is more of a heads up than anything detailed. I will cover when each of them occur and what the workarounds are. One thing you want to do is have both the Japanese and Patched ROMs present in your game folder, since the vanilla Japanese version will be handy for getting around two of the glitches. One is in the Chaos route, the other is required in the Law route or optional in the Neutral route.
I think that’s everything you need to know. I apologize if some of the information is a bit dodgy, but the vague nature of this game became quite overwhelming for me, so those are the basics that helped me get through some of the game’s hardest sections. Now it’s time to get into the missable achievements themselves.
There will be major story spoilers involved from here, since some actions are tied to specific plot triggers. If you wish to enjoy the story for the first time, please stop reading here.
MISSABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
Fan Translation Gitch Alert #1: This occurs in the Tokyo Government Office when the party goes to rescue Heroine from her execution. The first wave of enemies needs to be defeated in at least two turns, or else the pre-battle dialogue will repeat on the third turn, restarting the battle. As long as you do a sufficient amount of leveling, you should be able to do this with Law Hero and Chaos Hero’s AoE spells or multi-hit guns. As long as you clear the first wave quickly, the rest of the battle will play out fine.
Confront Ozawa in 199x before the Chaos Hero leaves the party for the first time
You’ll be playing through the story normally until you conclude the Heroine rescue sequence at the Tokyo Government Office, and must be done before Chaos Hero leaves the party prior to the Goutou/Thorman story arc beginning (Law Hero will also leave, but he’s not relevant for this). From Shinjuku Mall, head north and west until you find a lone yellow building with a red interior. It’s a short dungeon, so head through it until you confront Ozawa, who sics a Haunt Baykok on the party. If you need levels for the Heroine rescue sequence, you could do this beforehand. Rescuing Heroine is the final opportunity for this mini-quest before meeting up with her in Shinjuku’s Bar, where the party splits up.
Release every prisoner at Goutou's HQ
When Main Hero and Heroine go to Goutou’s HQ to hear Goutou’s side of the story (dude, put some clothes on!!), you can go into the basement and discover that it’s a prison. Three NPCs you can rescue are all females of varying ages, with the only common link being that they share the same name as Heroine. Simply rescue them all and you’ll get this. Makes Goutou’s side of the story a lot less believable after seeing this, doesn’t it?
Defeat both Ambassador Thorman and Commander Goutou
The two achievements Road to the Heavens and Road to the Abyss are both tied to this one, but as long as you do this correctly, you’ll get the others automatically. After hearing out both Goutou and Thorman, go to Goutou’s HQ first and tell him you won’t help him. He’ll first send two waves of demons, then fight the party himself. Once he’s down, go to the American Embassy and refuse Thorman’s offer as well. Thorman will reveal himself as the Norse god Thor and fight you himself. Once he’s defeated, “Thor’s Hammer” (read: nuclear missiles) will target Tokyo, complete with an ominous 30-second counter to doomsday. You need to fight Goutou first because defeating Thorman/Thor will advance the story, meaning you could potentially miss challenging Goutou. There is an alignment mechanic tied to these choices, but don’t worry about it for now. Stick to the Neutral path and defeat both leaders – they’re both PoSes anyway.
Well, so much for saving Tokyo… You wind up in a strange realm called Kongokai, and this is a spot where your alignment can affect a couple of mini-boss encounters. It’s made easier if you’re Law or Chaos, but harder if you’re Neutral. There is a Blue Phantasm who will give you a Chaos Axe if you’re Chaos, or you must fight for the axe if you’re Law or Neutral. Likewise, there is a Red Phantasm who will give you a Kodachi of Light if you’re Law, or you must fight for the sword if you’re Neutral or Chaos. Furthermore, you can only use demons as your allies for this part since Law Hero and Chaos Hero are temporarily removed from the party. I suggest fusing a Bai Ze and a Momonofu from the demons available in Kongokai. Bai Ze in particular has Diarama so it can function as a second healer aside from Law Hero.
Once you leave Kongokai and re-emerge in Post-Apocalypse Tokyo 30 years later, you immediately find out that the yen you have on hand is worthless and that makka is the new currency, meaning you have to farm for the new currency all over again if you want to do any shopping. Would’ve been nice if Ozuno could trade yen for makka in Kongokai to avoid such an unpleasant surprise, but whatever. There is an NPC in one of Shinjuku’s Bars who will happily trade the useless yen for makka, so make a pit stop there ASAP to get yourself started.
Your next destinations for this point in the story are Shinjuku and Shibuya, and there’s something crucial I want to point out here. First, you should see a cutscene of a woman trying to telepathically contact Main Hero. In Shibuya Mall, go up to the second floor and find Heroine imprisoned there! If you’re following InfinityDragon’s guide (which seems to be the only one available, from what I’ve seen), it does not explain this part very well, and the provided map for Shibuya 2F does not highlight where Heroine is. She is located in the far bottom left corner past the darkened area there. I got utterly lost after rescuing Psychodiver from Ozawa’s control because he was just sitting in Shinjuku’s bar getting plastered, and he’s needed for accessing the Heroine’s Subconscious dungeon. Turns out I had not found Heroine in Shibuya, so that story flag had not been activated yet.
For this reason, I suggest going through Shibuya first to find Heroine before doing the story events in Shinjuku involving Chaos Hero and Ozawa. Another thing you want to watch out for is that you will be losing one of your demons since Chaos Hero will be fusing himself with it, earning a large level boost in the process. Once Ozawa is dead, Chaos Hero will leave the party forever. Law Hero will stick around a bit longer, so you can go rescue Psychodiver and do the Heroine’s Subconscious story arc.
Another thing that InfinityDragon’s guide gets wrong is needing to buy a Hiranya in Shibuya’s Healer. It’s actually found in Shinjuku’s Junk Shop. A Hiranya will be needed for Roppongi’s story events. Speaking of Roppongi, this is where Law Hero likewise leaves the party forever, so be prepared for it.
Until We Meet Again My Love (5)
Help the Law Hero's girlfriend move on to the afterlife
This isn’t marked as missable, but can affect your alignment if you’re trying to plan for it ahead of time. You need to reach Roppongi Mall and go into the Disco, where Law Hero’s girlfriend (with the same name as Heroine) will be imprisoned. She asks you to set her free from her undead immortality, and says that Soul Incense will do the job. Post-Apocalypse Tokyo introduces a new type of shop called Rag’s, where you can exchange gemstones for various items. You need to find a Diamond in Shibuya Mall’s second floor, then exchange it at Rag’s for the Soul Incense. Bring it back to Law Hero’s girlfriend, use it on her, and she finally dies. The reward for this is a hefty shift towards Law alignment, which may not be desirable if you want to stay on the Neutral or Chaos paths, or likewise can be useful if you’re uncomfortably aligned with Chaos.
Defeat the Demon Summoner at Ginza
Another one that isn’t marked missable, but I’m not positive if the choice presented causes this to be missable. Make your way through the labyrinthine Ginza Mall until you find the Demon Summoner. He’s blocking the way to the overworld, and demands 10,000 makka for passage. I’m not sure if you can pay him and miss this, or if it’s a forced choice. Still, why fork over such cash when you can just beat him up and go through for free? Do so, and you’ll get this.
Be judged by Lord Yama and sentenced to death (Law - Neutral)
AND
Agree to work for Lord Yama against the Cathedral (Chaos - Neutral)
MAJOR ALIGNMENT ALERT!!
Meeting Lord Yama in Ikebukuro is the major branching point for deciding what your final alignment will be. Those trying to stay Neutral will find this section a bit frustrating since you can only make a choice that moves you to either Law or Chaos. You can easily recover from this by using the opposite type of Healer facility once you leave Ikebukuro. Furthermore, these two achievements are mutually exclusive, so you have to choose one, reset, and choose the other if you want to clean this up. You have two save slots, so make your backup save in Ginza and head for Ikebukuro, where Chaos Hero will apprehend the party and present them to Lord Yama.
If you’re thinking you can mess around with alignments to get everything done in one go, sorry to say but after the game’s second point of no return, you’re going to be locked in to your alignment. I’ll cover those details once we get there, but needless to say, there’s no time for screwing around. Make your choice and commit to it. That’s why you want that pre-Yama Ginza backup save so you can come back to this point without having to do the whole game again.
If you’re looking for the specific types of Healers, Shinjuku has all three available. Otherwise, the Neutral Healers are in Shibuya and Shinagawa. The Law-aligned Messian Temples are in Shibuya and Shinagawa. The Chaos-aligned Gaian Temples are in Ueno, Ikebukuro and Tokyo Destiny Land. Roppongi and Ginza have no Healers available. My personal recommendations are Shibuya for both Neutral and Law, and Ikebukuro for Chaos, since those are the closest facilities to their respective Terminals.
Before doing anything with Yama, I highly suggest you explore Shinagawa to gain some levels and plunder all of its goodies, as well as fight the Demon Summoner there. Just be sure not to meet Law Hero there unless you want to go on the Law route. The difficulty spike for this part of the game can be quite unforgiving, so you want to make preparations.
So, now it’s time I split the missables into their three respective routes to make things less confusing, especially for new players who might find all of these choices overwhelming. I’ll order them from left to right on the alignment scale: Law -> Neutral -> Chaos. Some achievements will be repeated – this is intentional, so that players can concentrate only on what’s available in their route. If you do a different route later and already have a particular achievement, just ignore it and move on.
WIP Notice - April 7: This part is a work in progress since I’m still playing through the story for the first time and thus don’t know the detailed strategies needed for handling all of these. As I learn more, I’ll update these appropriately. I’m doing Chaos first, then perhaps Law next, and Neutral last.
April 9: Finally completed the Chaos route, so the strategies presented there are the most well fleshed out. I'll be taking a short break from this game to do some other gaming since I feel quite burned out, but I promise I'll come back to complete the Law route next.
LAW ROUTE MISSABLES
This route has a rough start since you’ll be fighting Kishin Nio and Lord Yama from the get-go.
Defeat Kishin Nio while escaping from the Jail of Lord Yama (Law - Neutral)
Defeat Lord Yama at Ikebukuro (Law - Neutral)
Complete the Baptism ritual at Shinagawa (Law)
This is not marked as missable, but should be. The Law and Chaos routes have a baptism ritual you have to undergo to officially be locked into those particular alignments. Neutral does not have one. For Law, you need to go to Shinagawa 3F and speak with Law Hero there with a high Law alignment to help the Messian Church. Afterwards, Main Hero and Heroine will be baptised as Law-aligned protagonists, locking you into the route. This must be done before fighting Echidna at Tokyo Destiny Land, or you will miss out on the baptism trigger.
Defeat Echidna at Tokyo Destiny Land (Law - Neutral)
After being baptised into the Law route, go to Tokyo Destiny Land and traverse the very obnoxious dungeon to reach Echidna and fight her.
Visit the mansions of Zouchouten, Komokuten, Jikokuten and Bishamonten and have their occupants either join you or DEFEAT THEM
You'll be defeating the Four Heavenly Kings to remove the barrier they're creating around Tokyo. It's much easier to do this achievement either here or in the Neutral route, and significantly harder in the Chaos route which I explain in detail there. These guys are pretty much pushovers, so get them done and advance the plot to reach the game's second point of no return, which is Flooded Tokyo.
Obtain the Octopus Whistle (Law - Neutral)
Once YHVH floods Tokyo, you'll need a means of transport along the water. While in the south portion of the Cathedral (the Messian Encampment), you'll meet a Messian who is about to sacrifice a monster because it is an evil demon. You'll soon meet an Octopus who asks to be set free. A Messian will come in and ask what you're doing. Answer that you intend to free the Octopus and the Messian will let you go. Talk to the Octopus again and instead of eating you, he will give you the Octopus Whistle, which allows transport over water.
Fan Translation Gitch Alert #2: The game will always think you're answering "No" to the Messian's question, which means you're unable to save the Octopus. You'll have to save, quit out of the patched ROM, and switch to the Japanese ROM to do this part. If you try to just boot up the Japanese ROM though, you won't be able to load your save file from the patched ROM by default. You want to make a copy of the patched ROM, and rename it with the exact same name as the Japanese ROM. For instance, I have this file in my save folder:
- Shin Megami Tensei (Japan) (En) (1.0) (Aeon Genesis) (Bug Fix) (Orden) (1.0).srm
The Japanese ROM will not recognize it unless I rename it to the exact ROM file, which is Shin Megami Tensei (Japan).sfc. Thus, the renamed save file should be:
- Shin Megami Tensei (Japan).srm
Do that with the copy of the save file you made and stick it in your saves folder. Now the Japanese ROM will recognize the renamed save file, with all of your progress intact. Now do the sequence to get the whistle and save again. If you want to swap back to the patched ROM and continue from there, quit out of the Japanese ROM and rename the Japanese SRM file to exactly match the patched ROM's name. You may need to do some rearranging with your save files if you're making copies and backups.
Yes, I know it's a lot of work to get around this and the Ueno High Priest glitch seen in The Gaian, but there's not much else that can be done short of playing the whole game in Japanese, where these issues don't exist whatsoever.
The Demon King and His Son (10)
Defeat Ravana and Indrajit at the Tokyo Government Office (Law - Neutral)
After acquiring the Octopus Whistle, swim due west from the Cathedral until you hit deep water, then head north until you see the Tokyo Government Office's upper floors sticking out of the water. Find the Terminal and transmit back to the Cathedral, then speak to Law Hero for him to task you with helping Vishnu and defeating Ravana. Return to the government office and head up the west tower to find Vishnu first. This is because you want to recruit him as a minion prior to challenging Ravana and Indrajit.
Defeat Tyrant Surt in the Cathedral (Law - Neutral)
Defeat Astaroth in the Cathedral (Law - Neutral)
Defeat Arioch in the Cathedral (Law - Neutral)
Defeat Lord Asura in the Cathedral (Law - Neutral)
Obtain and equip Sword of Heaven (Law)
Defeat Beelzebub (Law - Neutral)
Ending 1 - Lawful Path
NEUTRAL ROUTE MISSABLES
Of the three routes, Neutral has the most going on. Since you’re resisting both factions, this means you will be fighting every possible boss that’s available for the rest of the game. If you think this stretch of the game might be too difficult for you, try doing one of the other two routes to ease you into the overall story before coming back to this.
Defeat Kishin Nio while escaping from the Jail of Lord Yama (Law - Neutral)
Defeat Lord Yama at Ikebukuro (Law - Neutral)
Defeat Divine Haniel at Shinagawa (Chaos - Neutral)
Defeat Echidna at Tokyo Destiny Land (Law - Neutral)
Defeat both Haniel and Echidna (Neutral)
Find a way into the Cathedral while both Haniel and Echidna are dead (Neutral)
Visit the mansions of Zouchouten, Komokuten, Jikokuten and Bishamonten and have their occupants either join you or DEFEAT THEM
Just like in the Law route, you'll be defeating the Four Heavenly Kings, but for a different reason - they will be testing your power. It's much easier to do this achievement either here or in the Law route, and significantly harder in the Chaos route which I explain in detail there.
Obtain the Turtle Shell (Chaos - Neutral)
OR
Obtain the Octopus Whistle (Law - Neutral)
Once YHVH floods Tokyo, you'll need a means of transport along the water. As I outlined in the Law route, the Octopus Whistle has a glitch in the fan translation that you need the Japanese ROM to get around. I suggest getting the Turtleshell Bell instead to save yourself the hassle. If you want the Octopus Whistle, read the details in the Law route for that achievement. Otherwise, look up the Turtleshell Bell's details in the Chaos route.
Defeat Deity Vishnu at Tokyo Government Office (Chaos - Neutral)
AND
The Demon King and His Son (10)
Defeat Ravana and Indrajit at the Tokyo Government Office (Law - Neutral)
AND
Defeat both Vishnu and Ravana at the Tokyo Government Office (Neutral)
After acquiring the Turtleshell Bell or Octopus Whistle, swim due west from the Cathedral until you hit deep water, then head north until you see the Tokyo Government Office's upper floors sticking out of the water. Since you'll be defeating both of them, and thus won't be recruiting them as minions, just go up each of their respective towers and fight them.
Obtain and equip Masakado's Katana (Neutral)
Defeat Tyrant Surt in the Cathedral (Law - Neutral)
Now it's time to explore the gigantic Cathedral dungeon, and I suggest doing the lower floors first so you can meet Louis Cypher at B7F and have him direct you to Beelzebub. After that, you can defeat the Chaos-aligned bosses, warp out and find Beelzebub, then complete the upper floors.
Defeat Astaroth in the Cathedral (Law - Neutral)
Defeat Arioch in the Cathedral (Law - Neutral)
Defeat Lord Asura in the Cathedral (Law - Neutral)
Defeat Beelzebub (Law - Neutral)
Defeat Uriel in the Cathedral (Chaos - Neutral)
Defeat Gabriel in the Cathedral (Chaos - Neutral)
The Guardian of the Tree of Life (10)
Defeat Raphael in the Cathedral (Chaos - Neutral)
Commander of Messian’s Army (10)
Defeat Michael in the Cathedral (Chaos - Neutral)
Ending 3 - Neutral Path
CHAOS ROUTE MISSABLES
You get to skip fighting Kishin Nio and Lord Yama here, but might get punished by later bosses if you don’t do the appropriate leveling to make up for the lost experience points.
Complete the Baptism ritual at Ueno (Chaos)
Just like with The Messian in the Law route, this is the Chaos route’s baptism ritual. You need to shift your alignment to be high Chaos, then find the High Priest at Ueno 3F to be baptised into the Gaian faction, locking you into the Chaos route.
Fan Translation Gitch Alert #3: Here’s the third fan translation glitch to worry about. After leveling up to level 65 to be able to get the Tenma Gear, speaking to the High Priest will cause him to do nothing but complement you for spreading Chaos. He’s supposed to open the locked doors leading to the Tenma Gear, but the glitch prevents this. Save your game, close out of the patched ROM and load the original Japanese ROM instead, return to the High Priest, and he should behave as normal. Follow the directions I outlined for Octopus Rider in the Law route to edit your save files. Once you're back at the High Priest's room, choose the first option to be initiated into the Gaian Temple (the second option declines the offer). Afterwards, turn around and re-enter the room for the High Priest to mention that he opened the doors to the Tenma Gear. All of the text will be in Japanese, but just follow those steps and you'll be fine. Once the doors are open, you’re free to save and switch back to the patched ROM.
Defeat Divine Haniel at Shinagawa (Chaos - Neutral)
I suggest leveling up at least Main Hero to 65 so he can equip the Tenma Gear. This makes fighting Haniel significantly easier, though he's more of a nuisance than a proper threat. He uses an ability that can potentially insta-kill any of your minions, but humans like Main Hero and Heroine are immune to it. My party consisted of Tamamo, Cerberus and Basilisk for attacking, and Shuten-Douji for casting Tarakaja to boost everyone's attacking power. Since the effect stacks, cast it as many times as you can while damaging Haniel, and he'll go down soon enough.
Visit the mansions of Zouchouten, Komokuten, Jikokuten and Bishamonten and have their occupants either JOIN YOU or defeat them
This is the only route where the Four Heavenly Kings will be joining your party, so disregard the “defeat them” clause in the description. Another reason you want to level Main Hero to 65 is because the Four Heavenly Kings each have a level gate that you need to pass in order to recruit them. Zouchouten is level 55, Komokuten is level 57, Jikokuten is level 59, and Bishamonten is a whopping level 75. You won't be able to recruit Bishamonten unless you've done a crazy amount of leveling, which is really difficult to do before the final dungeon. Unfortunately, recruiting Bishamonten from his manor needs to be done before the game's second no point of return, which happens right when you talk to Chaos Hero in the Cathedral after meeting the Four Heavenly Kings. Altomar informed me that, yes, you do need to level up Main Hero to 75 to recruit Bishamonten at his mansion, since the achievement is checking for the flags at the four mansions. That's not easy to do since you don't have the Cathedral available as the best grinding spot, so you'd be forced to use other locations like Tokyo Destiny Land, Ueno or Ikebukuro.
If you defeated them in the Law or Neutral routes, it's one less thing to worry about here. In fact, I actually suggest you confront them in either of those routes to save yourself the hassle. Sure, you can level up if you want to get this cheevo for the first time in the Chaos route, but I think that's a waste of time when you could just carry on with the other three demons here, plus you'll be getting Beelzebub who is level 99, and will join the party regardless of your level. A much better tradeoff, I'll say. Otherwise, the primary goals for meeting the Four Heavenly Kings are to dispel the barrier protecting Tokyo, and to lead you into the next major story point.
Obtain the Turtle Shell (Chaos - Neutral)
Once YHVH floods Tokyo, you'll need a means of transport along the water. While in the northern portion of the Cathedral (the Gaian Encampment), you'll meet a Gaian who wants to kill a monster and sell its meat. Enter the room and you'll see a turtle that has been captured. The Gaian will enter the room, but he'll quickly notice your awesome weaponry and will decide to let you have the Turtle. Talk to the Turtle again, who then gives you the Turtleshell Bell, allowing you to travel over water.
Defeat Deity Vishnu at Tokyo Government Office (Chaos - Neutral)
After acquiring the Turtleshell Bell, swim due west from the Cathedral until you hit deep water, then head north until you see the Tokyo Government Office's upper floors sticking out of the water. Go inside and use the Terminal to warp back to the Cathedral, then speak to Chaos Hero for him to task you with helping Ravana and defeating Vishnu. Return to the government office and find Ravana first. Why would you want to do that when you could just go straight to Vishnu and defeat him? Because you'll be recruiting Ravana as a minion. He's level 53, and has some high stats and decent spells at his disposal. Now Traport back to the Terminal and head up the west tower to find Vishnu and defeat him in battle. You should have plenty of levels and minions plus the Tenma Gear to help you dispose of him at this point.
Once you're done at the government office, it's time to dive into the Cathedral's two separate dungeons. There are some specific demons you will want to run away from without exception, since they can cause some nasty game overs or unwinnable situations. For the upper floors, run away from any Girimehkalas (one-eyed elephants) you come across, as they can insta-kill and cause paralysis. Trolls are another monster you want to flee from if there are a lot of them since they can freeze your allies. For the lower floors, stay away from Liches, Samaels, and Fleuritys. Lich and Samael are capable of one-shotting your allies, and a huge swath of Fleuritys can freeze your characters repeatedly like the Trolls can, which could get nasty if it lasts for too long.
Obtain and equip Kurikara's Blade (Chaos)
Once Vishnu is dead, return to the Cathedral to report to Chaos Hero of your success. Now it's time to traverse this behemoth of a dungeon, which has seven upper levels and seven lower levels. You want to explore the lower levels first to find Chaos Hero and Asura, as well as acquire Kurikara's Blade and speak to Louis Cypher for the next achievement. The sword is found in B2F of the Cathedral, and you need to equip it for the achievement to trigger. You won't be fighting Surt, Astaroth, Arioch and Asura here, so exploring the lower levels should be a little easier for you. Another Chaos-aligned weapon you can find is the Peacemaker, the best gun for this route. Be warned that this part of the Cathedral is one of the most frustrating sections in the whole game because it involves a series of teleports and going through specific one-way doors to reach a secret section of B2F, and you need to do this twice if you want to get both weapons. The Peacemaker doesn't have an achievement like Kurikara's Blade does, so it's up to you if you want to get it. It only adds 20 attack power over the Rail Gun, which is easily bought in the weapon shop.
Continuing further into the lower levels lets you meet Chaos Hero, Lilith and Asura. Lilith gives you the Belial Pot, allowing you to fuse it with the Renki-no-Ken to create the Fire Dragon Sword, which is the best sword available for Heroine. Make sure you have space for the Belial Pot, or you could potentially lose it forever! Now Asura tasks you with acquiring items from the previous three bosses Surt, Astaroth and Arioch so he can give you the Devil Ring, allowing you to fight Michael. Yeah, that means backtracking to the bosses and returning to Asura ALL~LL over again, all on top of having to traverse the upper floors to reach Michael. Fun times, huh?
Recruit Beelzebub (Chaos)
Be sure you have space to add Beelzebub to your collection of demons. Speak to Louis Cypher in B6F of the Cathedral (just before the stairs to B7F), and Beelzebub will spawn in an island to the west of the Cathedral island. Cast Traesto to leave the dungeon once you've done everything you want in the lower levels, and head west to find the island where Beelzebub is. You'll need to travel a bit west, but not all the way, then dip south a bit to find the island. Beelzebub is level 99, and you don't need Main Hero to be at that level, so have fun curb-stomping everything in your way from now on.
Defeat Uriel in the Cathedral (Chaos - Neutral)
With the lower levels done, you can now traverse the upper levels to defeat the Messian bosses. As long as you've done everything outlined above, it's essentially smooth sailing to the Chaos route's ending. Return to Asura with the three items to receive the Devil Ring, then proceed through the Cathedral's upper floors to reach these four bosses and defeat them.
Uriel can throw up a barrier that reflects physical attacks, but guns with Magic Bullets won't be affected, so have Main Hero and Heroine use those. I had Cu Chulainn and Jikokuten casting Tarukaja, but Beelzebub and Ravana couldn't really do much other than defend. If the barrier isn't active and you have a bunch of Tarukaja casts going, Uriel will melt like butter on a hot day.
Defeat Gabriel in the Cathedral (Chaos - Neutral)
Of the upper level's four bosses, Gabriel won't be quite as easy to defeat since he's immune to Sword and basic Attacks, and takes only 12.5% from Ice damage and 25% from Electric damage. He does take full damage from Fire, Impact and Almighty damage however, plus Magic Bullets still work. Thus the Magic Bullets + Tarukaja strategy can work for this. You'll want a demon or two for healing, but other than that, Gabriel's AI isn't very impressive since he'll usually do regular attacks or a freezing spell. Your demons won't be able to attack him directly due to his immunity, so they play a support role for this fight.
The Guardian of the Tree of Life (10)
Defeat Raphael in the Cathedral (Chaos - Neutral)
Since you won't be exploring 4F thoroughly, unlike in the Law route, Raphael is practically a hop and a skip away from Gabriel. This guy is laughably easy. Since he has no immunity to physical attacks, just waste him with Magic Bullets + Tarukaja spam and move on. Reach the stairs to 8F, say good-bye to Chaos Hero, and fight Law Hero to get through to Michael.
Commander of Messian’s Army (10)
Defeat Michael in the Cathedral (Chaos - Neutral)
Since this is the final boss, he won't be quite as easy to defeat compared to his compatriots, but not by much. He's more of a damage sponge with 10,000 HP and can hit pretty hard with his physical attacks and AoE spells. As long as you use the Magic Bullets + Tarukaja strategy, along with some healing, you will be okay. There aren't any status effects or insta-kills to worry about here, so it's all about weathering his blows. I had Beelzebub dealing damage, Cu Chulainn casting Tarukaja before attacking, Jikokuten for Tarukaja and Diarama, and Shuten-Douji for Tarukaja as well as Rakukaja to boost physical defense.
Ending 2 - Chaotic Path
Once Michael is down, just go straight ahead to automatically head up the stairs. That's it. Roll credits. You're done with the Chaos route. Give yourself a deserved pat on the back for surviving it, then go do one of the other routes if you haven't done so yet.
CONCLUSION
That’s everything you should need to know to be able to master this very difficult and complex game. I played this for Cheevomon League, and I’m not going to lie, I beat this game out of sheer spite, not actual enjoyment. I’ve heard about how brutal the Shin Megami Tensei franchise is, and having dipped my toes into this first entry, I’m not enthusiastic about exploring this series much further. Being constantly set back by random battles, vague story triggers, and absolutely no explanations for items or spells are not my idea of a fun time in a JRPG. I would understand the appeal for more masochistic players who find enjoyment in learning and strategizing their way through a difficult problem, but it’s not for me.
Alas, I will leave it at that and bid adieu until my next RAGuide comes out. Hopefully this guide will set you on the proper course to mastering this, especially for your chosen alignment and the challenges each route presents. Happy cheevo hunting, and I’ll see you next time!
- Benit149, April 2026