SMT4 - Fenrir, I'm not an SMT expert, but I think Niu's logic on SMT4's connection with the other games is a little questionable. Like, I have a friend who really liked Valkyrie Profile, and basically decided that Valkyrie Profile 2 was its own weird alternate universe due to its character assassinations on some of VP1's characters. This is fair enough for fanfiction, but.... Niu's right that Lucifer's plot in SMT4 is pants, but I'm not sure that's really a good signal for how alternate a universe it is. (Notably, SMT4 seems to be a continuation of SMT1, as best I can tell - Flynn is the reincarnation of the hero in SMT1, and the 2 alternate universe you visit in-game are the Law & Chaos endings to SMT1, ~25 years later. If Lucifer sucks, it's due to bad writing, not due to creating an alternate alternate universe where Lucifer is not up to all that much.)
SMT4 does not continue from SMT1.
To be more specific, SMT4's time line is different from the SMT1 due to Masakado and Stephen being completely different from their SMT1 counter part.
Also, this is not a problem that Lucifer sucks. Rather, Devil Summoner series has pretty much told us that Lucifer is the same person in every game post SMT3.
That's the real problem here. As the SMT4 Lucifer is different from the original Lucifer, and literally causing huge contradiction within the continuity.
Also, 25 years ago, Flynn is actually one of the demonica troops. I seriously don't recall SMT1 main being a demonica troop.
Oh, on top of that,l if SMT4 is a continuation of SMT1, then there is a huge pile of continuity mass that you have to work out from SMT Imagine and SMT Nine, which happens 10 years after SMT1.
You also missed the biggest plot contradiction that SMT4 has brought to the entire SMT cosmology.
They kill off YHVH, and by that I mean ALL YHVH across the multiverse.
And not just kill it, the entire monotheism concept that made YHVH into being has been removed by the law of observation.
In other words, YHVH can no longer exist in the SMT cosmology anymore, be it past, future, or alternate universe.
And... do I have to continue why this is a problem and what problem it cause to the SMT cosmology as a whole?
For starter, this alone destroys the SMT4 is an alternate SMT2 clause. Because SMT2 YHVH is trying to make a come back through the cosmic will. But wait, didn't SMT4 denied YHVH from that somic will entirely across the entire SMT multiverse? So if SMT4 happened, SMT2 YHVH wouldn't be able to do that right? So how can SMT2 and SMT4 both happens?
This some glaring self contradiction that cannot be worked around.
BTW, VP2 is it own alternate universe. Whne Lezard traveled to the past, VP2 already branched into its own timeline. That is why VP1 Lenneth didn't give an damn to what Lezard is plotting until the very end game. It is when Lezard transformed his tower into the new Yggdrasil and begin to erode other realities that VP1 Lenneth has to take action.
Yeah I agree.
Akira as the SMT1 main makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons and I'm buying it.
I also think the SMT2 and Apocalypse are a whole lot different, in 2 YHVH loses the war but retreats, so he can curse and eternally torment the SMT2 protagonist forever afterwards (like he does in Nocturne)
In Apocalypse he gets godslayer'd, so the protagonist goes free.
Lucifer being some part of YHVH and disappearing when he dies makes some kind of sense even for old SMT, in a way
Did you play SMT2 for real? YHVH died in SMT2.
But the cosmic will that supported his existence still exists. In other wards, new YHVH can still be born from new monotheistic faith.
Also, it is Satan who is a part of YHVH in SMT2, and he can't exist without YHVH, not Lucifer.
This is why Satan's race is Divine Spirit, the same race as YHVH and the Holy Ghosts. In SMT2, YHVH, Satan, and Holy Ghosts are the same being fundamentally. If YHVH is gone, so are the others.
BTW, Akira is Nanshi.
In other words. Flynn=SMT1 main and Akira=SMT1 cannot co-exist.