----------------------------------------------------- Shin Megami Tensei : Devil Summoner デビル サマナー ------------------------------------------------------ FAQ (v -0.3) by Q (awherron@yahoo.com) [Intro] Welcome to the Shin Megami Tensei : Devil Summoner general information FAQ. Basically, I'll just cover the basic stuff for all of the gaijins out there -- such as the status screens, demon loyalty, battle systems, and other stuff. Well, let's get started... [Title Screen -- New/Continued Game and Options/Configuration] When you start the game, you'll be greeted by the Shin Megami Tensei : Devil Summoner title screen with 2 choices to choose from -- 'START' and 'OPTIONS'. When you choose 'START', you'll automatically go into the game's intro screen (if you don't have a saved game) or if you do have a saved game, you'll be able to choose from one the 3 slots that you've saved the game in. You'll always be able to start a new game if you want to from that screen, too. As for the configuration screen, there are a couple of options available for you to choose from that'll affect the game a little. Here they are from top to bottom, with a brief description. Config Screen -------------------- Battle Message : Fast/Medium/Slow (Basically, think of this as the game's battle speed. Of course, if you set it on slow, the battles will go slow, and if you set it on fast, they'll go fast. But personally, I usually set them on fast -- the battles become unbearably slow when they're like that... so put it on fast. But that's just me.) Automapping : Fixed/Free (If it's fixed, the arrow that represents you will stay fixed and the map will rotate around you. If it's free, the arrow will move and the map will stay fixed. Of course, this is only if you have the Mapper spell on or if you use an item that causes the automap to appear.) Party Panel : Graph/Max (Whenever you look at the party's status during battle or on the status screen, take a look at their HP. If it's on Graph, it will show a bar. If it's on Max, it will show the Max HPs out of your current amount of HPs you currently have now. Devil Analyzer : Light-Law/Dark-Chaos (Whenever you look at the Devil Analyzer, it will look different depending on how you set it up. If it's on Law-Light, it will display all of the Light Law demons then go down the demon scale, starting with the Majin, then ending with the Gedou. If it's on Chaos/Dark, it will display the Gedou first, then end with the Majin. Sound : Stereo/Monoaural (Self-explanatory...) Item Organization 1/2/3 : (1 = Useable Items/Gemstones/Weapons & Armor 2 = Gemstones/Useable Items/Weapons & Armor 3 = Weapons & Armor/Useable Items/Gemstones) Spell Organization 1/2/3 : (1 = Healing Type/Effect Type/Attack Type 2 = Like 1, but in alphabetical order. 3 = Attack Type/Healing Type/Effect Type) When you keep pressing down on the directional pad, you'll eventually come into the controller pad section. Controller Pad : Normal/Custom (About custom - press the start button when in the controller pad section, and when you do an option will be highlighted in yellow. Press your desired button that you want to have that function, and when you're done customizing your pad, press the start button again to finish.) A - Large Cancel (This causes you to cancel everything and go back to the map screen if you're in the status screen.) B - Cancel (Go back one step.) C - Quick Status/Confirm-Select (When you're in the 3-D dungeon, this allows you to see who's in your party and how much Hp/Mp they have and what they're current status is. Pressing it again will take you to the status screen. If you're on the 3-D Map however, you'll go straight to the status screen. Also, this serves as the confirmation/selection button.) X - Battle Help (Pressing X when you're in a battle will have a explanation of what each command does on the top of the screen.. in Japanese.) Y- Auto Recover (When you're in a 3-D dungeon, pressing this will automatically bring all current party member's Hp to max. Of course, this is coming out of some of the items that you have or out of somebody's Mp...) L Trigger - Automap (When you're in a 3-D dungoen, pressing this will show the areas that you've already explored in a dugeon.) R - Devil Analyzer (Pressing this will show the demons that you've defeated/recruited so far thorughout the game. Doesn't include boss demons/characters.) ======================================================================== [--Status Screen--] As soon as you open up the status screen, you'll notice that you'll 5 options to choose from : COMP, MAGIC, ITEM, EQUIP, and STATUS. COMP - Allows you to change party position, summon new demons, return demons back into the computer, and delete demons from the computer. When you select COMP, you'll automatically be able to select one of the 19 bars on the screen - the top 6 (blue) bars that show who's currently in the party now (The Main Character and Rei Reiho will always be in this section) and the bottom 12 reddish-brown bars that show what demons you currently have stored up, and finally, the green bar with the trash can on it -- which is the demon deletion bar. To change party formation, go to COMP then select on of the 'occupied' blue bars -- in other words, a bar that has somebody in it. Then, hit the C button. Afterwards, once you move the cursor to the desired bar, hit the C button again and then the demon/person will move to that bar. Of course, if that bar is occupied by someone else then they'll switch places to where the moved person's previous location. If you want to put a demon in your party go to COMP, then go to one of the reddish-brown bars that have a demon in it, then hit the C button. Once you do, drag the cursor to one of the empty blue bars, then hit the C button again. That particular demon that you've selected is now in your party. Now, if you want to delete a demon from your party, select one of your demons by positioning the cursor over them and hit the C button. Afterwards, drag the cursor to the green bar, then hit C, where the demon will then be deleted from your database, leaving one free space open. Of course, you can't delete Main or Rei (duh) and you should only do this if there's a demon that you don't particularly want. MAGIC - Allows you to use magic from either a demon or Rei Reiho. To use magic on the status screen, select magic, then select a person who can use magic. You can always tell who can use magic and who can't, since magic user's names will always be highlighted in white. Once you select a person who can use magic, a list showing all of their available magic abilities will shown. Of course, magic that can be used on the status screen will be shown in white. If there's no need for that particular spell to be casted, the spell name will remain in black. ITEM - Allows you to use items on the status screen. Items highlighted in black means that you cannot use them on the status screen, since they may be battle-only items. Also, if you keep pressing up on the items screen, you'll come across the 'rare/important items' list (in other words, items that you get as the story progresses from certain characters.) Depending on how you had your item organization set up, the items will appear in a different order. Look at the Config Screen section screen for info. On another note, you can give certain items such as Gems, Orbs, and Maseki to 'Greedy' type demons to increase their loyalty towards you. I'll talk about that later. EQUIP - Allows you to equip items to the main character and Rei Reiho. They can both equip handheld weapons, guns, bullets, helms, body armor, gloves, and boots. On the very top, you'll notice two words: Osusume (おすすめ) which equips all of the 'best' equipment you have in your inventory and Hazusu (はずす) which unequips all items that you currently have equipped on you. On the right, you'll notice 5 kanji, which represent your stat increase/decrease as you equip different items. From top to bottom, they are: Strength, Intelligence, Magic, Stamina, Speed, and Luck. To the right of those are from top to bottom: Weapon Power-Accuracy, Gun Power-Accuracy, Armor Defense, Evasion Rate, Magic Power, and Magic Effectiveness. And to the right of that in the green section is the list of available items that you can currently equip. Keep in mind that some items are gender-specific (you can tell by the signs in the description box on top of the screen). STATUS - When you go to the status screen, you'll be able to look at the stats of your human characters and you demon allies. Basically, here's a break down of the screens for both races: Human Status Screen ----------------------------- On the left side of the screen is this stuff: LV - Shows character's current level. Hp - Shows character's current/max Hp. Mp - Shows character's current/max Mp. Exp - Shows the current amount of experience accumulated so far. Next - Shows how much experience is needed to get the next level. The big hexagon in the middle has the following info: 力 = Strength 知 = Intelligence 運 = Luck 魔 = Magic 速 = Speed 耐 = Endurance (Stamina) On the top right of the screen: Auto Action = When you hit the C button on the status screen, a list of options will come up to ask you what you want your character to do when they're in auto mode. Party Alignment = This is determined by the alignment majority of demons in your party. If the alignment of demons in your party happen to be Law, the party alignment will be Law. If the alignment of demons in your party happen to be Chaos, then it's Chaos. If the demons are Neutral (or if there's no demons in your party) it will be Neutral. Simple stuff. Also, keep in mind that this does have someone of a huge effect on the game in terms of recruiting demons. If the party alignment of the party is the opposite of the demon you're trying to recruit, keep in mind that the demon won't join you. Also, you can't have a Law and Chaos demon co-exist in the same party. If it leans one way, you'll have to find demons of the same alignment to put in the party. Note that *one* demon of Law/Chaos alignment will automatically set the party alignment to it's designed alignment if it ends up in the party. Of course, none of this stuff applies to Neutral demons... On the far right of the screen: Weapon Power Weapon Accuracy Gun Power Gun Accuracy Defense Power Evasion Magic Power Magic Resistance Demon Status Screen ------------------------------ On the top left side of the screen: Class - Shows the type of demon currently in investigation. Demon Name - Shows the demon's name. On the left side of the screen: LV - Shows the level of the demon. Hp - Shows the current/max Hp of the demon. Mp - Shows the current/max Mp of the demon. Mag Consumption - Shows how much Mag the demon takes per step. On the bottom left side of the screen: Spells - Shows how many and the type of spells the demon has. The big hexagon in the middle has this info: 力 = Strength 知 = Intelligence 運 = Luck 魔 = Magic 速 = Speed 耐 = Endurance (Stamina) On the right side of the screen: Auto Action - Shows the current auto action of the demon. Press C on the status screen to determine what it will be. Control Level - Shows how much control you have over the demon. A scale of 1 to 10 is shown to represent the level of control. 1 = The demon won't do what you say, 10 = Complete control over the demon and his/her/it's spells/attacks, and it'll do what you say about 99.9% of the time. Demon Personality - The demon's personality. I'm not sure what this determines... On the bottom right of the screen: Demon Alignment - Shows the demon's alignment. A 3 x 3 axis consisting of Light-Neutral-Dark and Law-Neutral-Chaos is used to represent the demon's alignment, which could have up to 9 different combinations. If you press right on the demon's status screen: Strength Accuracy Defense Evasion Magic Power Magic Resistance On the bottom right hand side are some notes and comments about the demon. ________________________________________________________________________ Well, that's it for now -- but there will soon be more stuff added to the FAQ. I'm far from finished... v 0.1 : (Some of you might remember this as the Demon List FAQ... well, I'm now turning it into a full-fledged gaming FAQ, since a Demon List won't really help people. Anyway, stay tuned...) v 0.2 (4-26-02) : (I apologize for the long update... just doing this to let you guys know that I'm alive. Anyway, I added the 'ITEM' and 'EQUIP' sections. Hope it helps.) v 0.3 (5-13-02) : (Yet another long past due update. Anyway, I put in some stuff on the status screen. Enjoy...) (c) 2002, by Q. All rights reserved. All versions of this FAQ (if any) will be property of the sites that I say can use them. Don't sell this FAQ, as it is free to the public. If I do give you permission to have this FAQ on your site, don't edit it in any way.