If you saw my previous post, you should know that I love Shin Megami Tensei. No other franchise has been able to use mythology and religion in a greater way than SMT has. However no game is perfect, and just like there are bad Pokemon, Shin Megami Tensei has a small chunk of crap as well. In my last post, I praised some of my favorite demons for their design and their usefulness in the games, but I didn’t actually mention any demons that I didn’t like. So here is my top 8 least favorite Shin Megami Tensei demons.
Please know that this list is only my opinion. If you like any of these demons, then good for you, I’m merely expressing why I don’t like these demons. Also, you may say I’m not being fair, since I’m mostly judging these demons by their design, but in SMT it’s hard to bash a demon statistically because, unlike other games of the monster summoning genre, the monsters’ stats don’t carry over from game to game, meaning that 1 demon could be a low to mid level demon in one game, and be the ultimate boss of another.
If you’re wondering why this is a top 8 instead of a top 10 that’s mainly because I love this series so much that I can only think of 8 demons that I find absolutely repulsive, but the ones that I do, I have to make a list about them.
8) Cherub (latest design)
Anyone who is, or has been a Christian should know what a Cherub is, but in case you don’t know I’ll give you a quick reminder. Cherub is one of the highest ranking angels in the Christian hierarchy, they are usually categorized in the First Sphere, and NOT a bow-wielding baby with wings! A Cherub, armed with a flaming sword, was placed in front of the Garden of Eden to keep Adam and Eve out after they were kicked out of the garden. The prophet Ezekiel describes cherub as a 4-headed monster with the face of a man, a lion, an eagle, and an ox, which was similar to his old SMT II design, which I like, but what in YHVH’s name is this? Is that what you call an angel? Instead of having the face of the 3 animals I just mentioned, he’s on an island with statues of those animals? Where is the flaming sword? Why does he need an island? We know he has wings, is he too lazy to fly around on his own? if he is then that kind of defeats the purpose of him being an “angel”, considering that laziness is one of the seven deadly sins. His overall design isn’t horrible, but when I think of an “angel”, this is the not what I would have in mind, and at least he isn’t a flying baby.
7) Basilisk (new design)
In European lore, a Basilisk is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power to cause death with a single glance. Would I have ever guessed that by playing? no, at least not with this design. When you think of “Basilisk”, you probably think of the giant snake from Harry Potter, or a dragon, or anything but a freaking yellow lizard. When I look at this thing, I see a demonization of the Geico gecko. You might think this thing is big by looking at the artwork, but it isn’t, in fact its so small my player might accidentally step on it while looking for stronger demons.
6) Lilith (SMT IV redesign)
If you read my top 10 favorite article you probably saw Lilith on my honorable mentions list, the OLD design that is. Unlike most people, I actually like most of SMT IV’s redesigns, my favorites are Ashtaroth, Asmodeus, Yaso Magatsuhi, and Merkabah. But out of all the other demons they could have re-designed, why did they have to re-design Lilith? a fan favorite! Okay, if you are going to re-design Lilith, why would you make her look like that? In case you didn’t know, Lilith is a temptress in Jewish lore, a succubus and the first wife of Adam. So… am I supposed to be attracted to this thing? It’s twice my size, has 4 arms, and a big bloody mouth. If this was what Lilith really looked like, it’s no wonder Adam broke up with her.
5) Belphegor
Do I have to explain? Look at him! He is a demon sitting on a toilet. Okay, Belphegor is a demon of the Goetia, one of the seven princes of hell, and represents the sin of sloth (laziness), remember how earlier I said that laziness was one of the seven deadly sins, yeah, Belphegor represents that. I can understand that his design would need some of prop to explain his lazy nature, but did it have to be a toilet of all things? it could have been a chair, or a bed. I know he represents laziness, but is he really so lazy that he can’t even get up off of his toilet? He can’t go around tempting humans and fighting angels if that’s the case, because that defeats the purpose of him being a demon, and isn’t that what makes them demons? In Persona 2: Innocent Sin you literally fight him inside the restroom, but even then he still gets up out of the stall to fight you, so this whole design is just one big paradox. He probably wouldn’t be on here if it weren’t for the toilet, but since he has one, I have to include him.
4) Bael (SMT II design)
Another demon of the Goetia, and one of the seven princes of hell (depending on who you ask). This time, he is based on (but not synonymous with) a Semitic god, rather than representing a deadly sin, yeah, the only deadly sin committed here is how boring this design is. If you simply Google “Baal” and click the link that says “Baal (Demon)” you will see a 3-headed monster with the face of a man, a cat, and a frog, and has spider legs, not this abomination. The original design was more like this, why would they change it? If you’re going to change it, at least make it something better than a naked man riding a frog with a cat on is neck, not to mention he was knocked down from level 78 to 55, and had all his stats (except luck) drastically decreased. This is a perfect example of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Hopefully if Bael returns in a modern SMT game, we’ll see his old design, instead of this.
3) Hamsa
Okay, well at least Garuda, Yatagarasu, and the other generic birds look like they give a crap. Hamsa’s face just screams “du-du-du-du-derp, I’m a demon-derp!”. He is literally a duck, wearing a helmet. Can’t they be more creative? In Hindu lore, Hamsa is the steed of Brahma, one of the 3 main deities, so why the lame design? Garuda is the steed of Vishnu, another main deity, and he looks awesome, so why does Brahma have such a lame ride? There isn’t really much else I can say about this design, other than the fact that I feed sorry for Brahma.
2) Erzulie
Look at this thing. Look at it! Is it a purple blob? no. Is it Medusa? no. Is it Nicki Minaj? no. It’s a freaking goddess of love in Haitian Vodou. Now, just by looking at this thing would you ever think it was a friendly spirit? no, because it’s butt-ugly, seriously, it looks like Oprah Winfrey fused with Jabba the Hutt. Is this how Atlus views the Haitian lore, probably not because there is Loa in SMT and he looks cool, so why this? The worst part about it is that it’s in the Megami race, you know, a race for beautiful goddesses like Laksmi, Parvati, and Amaterasu, so why in YHVH’s name is this thing in there? it should be in the foul or haunt race. That’s all, for a goddess of love, the only thing loveable about this thing, is that it’s only in one of the SMT games.
1) Diana
Every once in a while, in monster taming games, there will be a few designs that people will make immature jokes about, a good example being the rumor about the Pokemon Musharna looking like an aborted fetus, or Castform having a pair of breasts. Well this thing, has breats all over it. Breasts on her head, breasts on her shoulders, breasts on her hips, breasts on her elbows, breasts on her knees, and even breasts on her feet. What were they thinking!? Diana is the Roman goddess of hunting, so that doesn’t explain why she’s covered in boobs from head to toe! and why the Demiurge would you ever want to use this thing in battle. Thank YHVH it’s a Light-aligned demon, so I don’t have to see this abomination in battle. You see Atlus, it’s monsters like this that need redesigning, not Titania, Bael, or Lilith. If you ever see this thing on the fusion screen in Strange Journey or SMT IV, don’t fuse it, it isn’t even that good in battle anyway. That is all, horrible design, please try again.
You’re probably thinking “where’s Mara?” Well as much as I find that thing hideous and distasteful, I don’t think I can bash it’s design. I’m sure it wasn’t penis humor the artists were going for when they designed him, and I was scared to death when I saw him in Persona 3.
Thank you for reading my article, I hope I didn’t offend anybody. Once again, I love SMT, but I feel like I had to rant on some of these designs. If you disagree that’s fine, but please keep flaming to a minimum.
