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We’re continuing our coverage of our picks for the best demons in each stretch ofShin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, with an eye toward the expansive mid-game this time around. By “mid-game”, we’re talking about the second and third major regions, plus everything that goes down between them.
Before we begin, we should note that we aren’t saying these demons aredefinitivelywho you should choose. There are plenty of great options. Rather, we’re mulling over our personal favorites. Maybe you’re just looking for tips on which ones caught our gameplay-centric eye, but plenty of creatures in the compendium are worth a try!
We haven’t ordered this in any particular fashion, as they’re (mostly) a fairly diverse bunch, capable of handling certain situations better than others.
Alice
Alice is aspecial fusiononly possible through a specific combination:Muu Shuwuu, Jack-o'-Lantern, Bugs, and Poltergeist.
Pros
If you need someone withexcellent dark-type attack coverage, Alice can scarcely be rivaled even later in the game. Her unique skill,Die For Me!, strikes foes randomlytwo to six times with medium-rated damage.
If you’d prefer something more traditional, she also comes withMamudoon, a dark-type attack that strikes all enemiesin a more guaranteed fashion.
Alice hasDark Pleroma, which boosts dark-elemental attacks above their normal capacity, so yeah, she’s unstoppable.
Alice’ssky-high magic statmeans these attacks will hit like a truck. She can also use theFreikugal EXMagatsuhi skill, which is asevere level-based single-target Almightyattack. We’ve seen over 1,000 damage from it even with her level still in the forties range.
Cons
Alice’sstrength stat is abysmal, so don’t expect her to do much there. More importantly,she’s weak to light, and you’ll fight a fair number of angelsaround the mid-game.
However, Alice learnsResist Light, which you should definitely keep. Suddenly, she’s not only absorbing dark, she’s even shrugging off her major flaw.
Hell Biker
Hell Biker is also aspecial fusion. In his case, you’ll needKelpie, Andras, and Angel.
First, take a look at those innate resistances. Hell Biker is naturallyresistant to fire, force, light, and darkwhile having only one weakness: ice. He squares off well against plenty of foes.
Hell Biker’sagility stat is excellent, soaccuracy and evasion are both above-par. This is solid stuff, but there’s more to it than that.
Hell Biker’s innate skill,Speed Demon,raises the odds of critical hits againstany foe with a lower agility stat. Which means, a lot of them. And since you canpump him with agility incense, it can get pretty wild.
We also love the fact that he’s got no fewer than three unique skills. And they’re good!Hell Spindeals heavy physical damage to all foes;Hell Exhaustdeals medium force damage to all foes while removing buffs; andHell Burnerdeals heavy fire damage to all foes.
Put together, Hell Biker makes a fantastic crowd-clearing mid-game tough guy with a rad design to boot.
The big one’s the barrier of entry. In order to gain the chance to fuse demons into Hell Biker,you must defeat Matador after unlocking “Return of the True Demon”, a side quest that was DLC in the original SMT 5.
It’s not that Matador’s fight is especially hard; but it’s frustrating at lower levels, asMatador can ramp up his evasion statquite a bit. Just tackle him when you’re around level 30 or higher, and then face off against Hell Biker (an easier fight, we think).
Other than that,none of Hell Biker’s stats outside of agility are anything to write home about, meaning he can eventually get outclassed by the more menacing late-game fare.
Hayataro
Once again,this is a special fusion. Creating Hayataro involvesfusing Inugami and Take-Minakata.
Hayataro is a very good pupper. That’s all, no notes.
No, but seriously, he’s superb.Lightning Speed, Hayataro’sinnate skill, boostscritical hit ratewhen accuracy and evasion are raised.
As it happens, Hayataro’sWitness Me special skill,raises accuracy and evasion by two stages whiledrawing enemy aggro. Thus, he’s a fantastic “evasion tank” whose attacks are going to hurt quite a bit, indeed.
This, too, synergizes neatly with other aspects of Hayataro’s kit. His other special skill,Carnage Fang, strikes one foe withheavy physical damagewhile improving substantially if it’s a critical hit!
Although Hayataro isimmune to electric and resistant to both physical and light, there’s no getting around the fact that hisweaknesses to dark and forcecan be costly.
But since you’re able to alwaysuse essences to cover weaknesses, andHayataro doesn’t really benefit from a diverse move pool, you can bypass this by filling slots withResist DarkandResist Force!
Yoshitsune
Yoshitsune tends to be rather overpoweredin most Shin Megami Tensei games, including (heck, especially) the Persona series. He’s no slouch in Shin Megami Tensei 5, either.
Stats-wise,Yoshitsune’s strength and agility are almost comically great, so he’ll dish out tons of damage with razor-sharp accuracy while dodging plenty of what’s thrown back at him along the way.
Yoshitsune’sunique skill, Hassou Tobi, strikes eight opponents at random forweak physical damage. But don’t let “weak” fool you here.These are always critical hits, so they’re packing a real wallop every time.
He also learnsRetaliate, which grants a possibility for him tocounter all strength-based attacks. Unlike the more traditional Counter skill itself,Retaliate hits with medium damageinstead of weak.
Well, compared with some of his outings in other SMT titles, Yoshitsune’s a tad underwhelming. Perhaps that says more about how mighty so many of this title’s late-game demons can be, though.
Yoshitsune’sunique skill, Yumi Nagashi, can be pretty situational. It’s still great that he has this, but still.Actions that typically take more than one Press Turn icon will insteadadda Press Turn iconon the following turn.
Finally,Yoshitsune’s weak to dark, which can be rectified with essences, but does require that extra step to mitigate. Like Hayataro, however,you won’t feel the need to diversify his build much, so it’s no huge loss.
Idun
We took time off from saying this with Yoshitsune, but guess what -Idun is a special fusion. For her, you’ll needHua Po, Ame-no-Uzume, and Parvati.
Idun is one of the best support-centric demonsin Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, hands down. Hermagic statis frighteningly great, which bolsters not only herconsiderable healing capability,but her offensive potential as well.
Golden Appleis Idun’sunique skill.With it, she’llrestore HP to the party while simultaneously boosting all stats by one stage. One stage isn’t quitetwostages, the max, yes. But it’s still a heck of a deal.
Although Golden Apple only heals “slight” HP,Idun’s high affinity for healing skillsand the aforementioned outstanding magic stat will have this feeling plenty more refreshing than it sounds at first blush.
Idun’sinnate skill, Demonic Meditation, is fairly lackluster.It will sometimes give you another shot atnegotiating with a demonif you mess up, which can happen fairly often, but it’s hardly a game-changer, and it won’t help in tough fights.
Her level-up skills aren’t great, either.Diamritarestores moderate HP to one ally whilecuring ailments, andLife Aidrestores a bit of HP after fights.Mahamaonis pretty good, at least -heavy light damage to all foes.
