I've loved every bit of this novelisation! Every aspect of the ideas that were present in the first SMT game were explored really well, and it all led to an ending that could be defined, as already done by another reviewer, as a hidden bonds ending! Perhaps that's the best part of this story: you were not afraid to step out of the typical guidelines of this franchise and to look for a way for all of the characters (well, almost) to survive, and to fight together against the real threats, in a way not dissimilar from what Apocalypse had done.

I must mention that I loved the love between Kazuya and Yuka, as well as the dynamic between the two opposite heroes, Takashi and Yuji. The insertion of the story of Abel and Cain to describe the two opposite heroes, alongside the well-known Adam and Eve motif, was sheer genius!

So this is the final chapter to this novelization of the very first Shin Megami Tensei title? Well this tale was bound to reach its conclusion at some point and time, but I really was not expecting this to be the case this quickly. You sure did make some huge drastic changes to the closing events of the Neutral path,the canon one according to the sequel SMT II. I thought Takeshi and Yuji were far too gone in their respective beliefs to ever decide to come back to joining up with Kazuya and Yuka, but my golly a miracle was performed so that not only did not they kill one another, but Kazuya and Yuka did not also have to kill them either which has to be a sigh of relief.

Shit! I was not expecting Takeshi at all to murder Asura like that in cold blood due to being so weak, but he did so. Well done there. Asura brought about his own doom though talking poorly of his ally and had it coming.

The God that Yuji believes in sounds way better,more merciful and less of a hostile entity than whatever one the Mesians supporters and worshiped.

That such a very moving moment between them,having Yuji and Takeshi meeting up again and renouncing their respective paths and allies,choosing to work together like the old times. So wait the Messiah is not Kazuya at all?

How could I have forgotten to bring up the mere fact that they all are extremely fortunate to avoid tangling with the optional boss Beelzebub?! Not that I have any problems defeating it on the Neutral play through I completed,but then again I sincerely doubt that Kazuya, Takeshi, Yuka, and Yuji would have more than enough stamina and power to defeat such a difficult demon lord.

It is yet again an optional boss in SMT II so I suppose you can save the fight with Beelzebub for then.

How fitting that the true final opponent for them all to face was Michael together. Takeshi died doing the right thing and atoned for his mistakes.

So Rie aka Lilith had finally given up, ran off forever, and chosen to not fight Kazuya and Yuka? I was expecting her to least show up and attempt one last time to change his mind, but I suppose she realized how futile it was going to be and decided no more.

Either way,Lilith is nowhere to be found in SMT II so this is the last time she is ever heard of again.

That is Lucifer for you. Scheming and plotting ahead. He must be disappointed that Jin/Takeshi failed him, but no matter. The Morning Star can always find another human champion to groom for his nefarious plans.

In a manner of speaking,I could say that your derivation of what actually occurred within the first SMT title is the secret Bonds ending.

Hopefully Aleph, Beth, and Hiroko get a chance to interact in some meaningful capacity with Kazuya, Yuka and Yuji before the later three are killed off.

You raise a fantastic point there The sequel on the other hand really hammers this home on the central theme of Adam,Eve and Lilith. I eagerly await to read what you have in store concerning the relationship between Aleph, Hiroko, and Beth. Me personally I would have it so that Beth is not killed off and ends up together with both of them. That would really piss off the Temple Knights and Mesians.

Congratulations on completing yet another novelization. This one on the other hand compared to the Nocturne novelization you finished I was very delighted to stick around with until the very end.

I want to play both SMT IV and Apocalypse to get a much better understanding besides watching footage of both titles on Youtube.

I see. I never thought of Takeshi and Yuji as being Cain and Abel. Then again,I am not too well versed in the story behind them.

Thank you very much once more for providing me a solid reason to keep an eye out in this section.

Poor Rie fails yet again at her attempts of seducing another man even one who will be dead very soon. It would seem that she is not cut out to be the best temptress ever. Kazuya and Yuka got a whole lot of courage to be entering the Gaean hideout even if they are quite powerful and have some menacing demons at their command. But despite the different paths the three friends took,there is at least some small bit of respect for one another even if they may not agree on their respective ideals.

It would have been more interesting and comical if Jin had fused with Orthrus,Cerebu's brother just to provide some amusing sibling rivalry.

Let it be know that no woman likes to be ignored. It is not yet time for Rie to reveal her true identity. If you do plan on having her fight Kazuya, I think that it should be a one on one fight. Maybe then she will understand that he will not love her back in death. A fitting way to end her scheming ways.

Truly this is all setting to be the beginning of the end for humanity's days as the dominant species.

Such savagery displayed by both Yuka and Kazuya taking down three powerful gods in consecutive battles. Good thing that game did not have you fight them consecutively in this manner as it would be quite grueling.

But yet there is still plenty more battles yet. Heck at the end of this latest chapter,they will have to play their cards right to take down all six foes,seraphim and demon lords alike, without dying in the process. It sure is not by any means whatsoever walking the neutral path. Of course Kazuya won't be able to harm Arioch at all and will have to rely upon his demons and Yuka to inflict any damage on the demon lord since it reflects both physical and gun attacks. Unless he has his hands on special bullets that are almighty based.

Gabriel is dead which is great.

Allen or should I say Yuji has really seen the light.

Afterwards there only remains Michael and the Asura Lord left to put an end to this madness.

I see now. Such a brilliant plan orchestrated by Yuka to rid themselves of Alice once and all. Yeah as powerful she may be due to her fiend status,once Yuka and Kazuya died,the two of them would be nothing more than her toys for all of eternity which is a terrible fate worse than death. So getting rid of her now was the best move they could have done. Although losing her, Nebiros, Belial, and now a Joker did deal a huge blow to their offensive lineup,it was fun while it was lasted. But on the other hand though, Pascal finally showed up and returned to his master. And even better than that is Kazuya did not have to use the apple to bring him back to his senses in order to recruit him back like in the video game.

Another monkey wrench thrown into the gears as to switch it up. So that is the major setback of a human fusing with a demon like that in such a manner: a much shorter lifespan. Or maybe it has to do more with Jin simply not possessing the strong will, mind, body, and spirit required to handle that. In the end though he still did not end up being oh so powerful.

So Yagatarasu and the old monk from the very beginning of this tale are one in the same? What a complete shock to me. True that. I agree with the old monk's view on life.

Even the nekomata lives.

I suppose now there is much higher chance of Allen and Jin killing one another thus sparing Kauyza of doing that himself. However that still leaves the likes of Lilith or should I say her current disguise of Rie. She will not give up and take no for an answer.

Allen is that young? 15? Oh wow. It seems that he is having some serious doubts about being their messiah. For this very small moment, Allen, Yuka, and Kazuya were talking to another as the allies and friends they all use to be before their paths took a very different turn, leading them to go on their separate ways.

Vishnu will prove to be quite a difficult opponent for Kazuya and Yuka to overcome when that time comes but Kazuya does have Masakado's blessing and I imagine his sword and armor to provide such a huge helping hand.

This tale is reaching its end soon enough. I did not think that you would be able to finish a novelization of the very first Shin Megami Tensei title in under 30 chapters.

What shall happen? Who knows for sure, but the entire fate of the world rests in the balance.

Considering how much of a pushover Yama was both as an ally and a boss,I am glad somebody else much more capable is in charge of the demon court. I mean come on. Factoring in how late in the game you can finally summon him via fusion when you are the same level as him or higher,Yama has pathetic MP in the double digits which is unacceptable when every other demon already has triple digit MP. At least Yama slightly makes up for it by having very high HP.

Then of course there is his given name since it is also the same one as a demon race you can recruit.

What a huge sigh relief that refusing Typhon's request does not result in either a fight with him or immediate execution. Such of the huge positive aspect of being completely neutral.

Where could Alice, Nebiros, and Belial desire to wonder off to at this point and time as well the reason why? Well all Kazuya can hope for is that it does not involve slaughtering a whole bunch of innocent humans.

So it is tome for Jin and Allen to fight one another at last for their respective beliefs and alignments. Now then that leaves the huge question as to what will Kazuya and Yuka do in this circumstance?

Sweet! Kazuya has his own private army of robots under his control. That should really thing improve the situation humanity currently finds itself in. It can be their base of operations and home for the time being. Even better than that is Lord Masakado offering a helpful hand by having his four most trustworthy followers aid in training Kazuya. It would be quite a feat if any or all of the four of them offer to join him. Four days huh? Damn so much for the proverbial seven days.

That is not exactly what I would call a happy accident. Fusing three different demons and ending up with a fiend instead. One that has no problems whatsoever killing the summoner or anybody else for that matter for that matter. As terrible it would have been going through all of that in order to get a pathetic slime,at least that thing is relatively harmless.

They are stuck with Alice for the time being. I am not sure exactly how can a fiend receive any sort of punishment no matter how big or small for disobeying a contract but who would want to find that out if it means you are killed in the process.

What a clever workaround there. Forming a contact with both Belial and Nebrios thanks to being sealed within the Gushing Jar. But if only because they too fear her dangerous power as a fiend even if she is not too high ranked of one.

I have made the costly mistake of accidentally entering a shrine while low leveled and got killed quickly especially by those annoying Tengu demons that bind you and prevent you from doing anything including running away. But on the other hand though, it is a great and quick means of leveling so early in the game if you have the right demons,items, and equipment with you.

I cannot wait until Alice encounters some high levels demons and angels completely immune to her instant death unique spell. It will be quite a funny sight. May Kazuya not get hurt too badly during the essential training montage.

A much safer alternative than what the game had you do for sure. Capturing two powerful demons with the Gushing Jar instead of one. A great means of avoiding a potentially fatal battle.

Both Yuka and Kazuya also got extremely lucky that Alice was nowhere to be seen while they had captured Belial and Nebrios or else they most definitely would have died.

Let it be known that guys like Kazuya are not easily swapped by temptation from such a gorgeous lady or in this case a demon. A legendary female demon no less.

Boy that sure escalated quickly. Yuriko revealed her true identity much faster than expected. Not to mention that she did not shown any interest in taking away Belial and Nebrios from the two soulmates. But why would she in this case when Yuriko is way more determined to kill Yuka and take Kazuya for herself.

That also sucks that Kazuya flat out denied Yuriko/Lilith even the chance of becoming his second beloved. So much for that backup idea. Maybe if she had not come on too strong onto Kazuya,attempted to kill Yuka, and be very open to the idea of having a male and female partner then perhaps the circumstances could have played out very differently.

I was not expecting Haniel to be showing up so soon, but always be prepared for change as they are learning.

Allen finally learns the truth behind what exactly makes Kazuya and Yuka so special. Oh man. God gave a whole bunch of tasks for their Messiah to complete in such a short amount of time.

Kazuya returns home at last, but only to deal with some rogue robots with his soulmate Yuka. I would love it if the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei V title brings back the robots and even better than that allow you to keep one as an ally. Not exactly the homecoming they desired.

No time to rest.

Oh poor gullible Jin. He does not that he is speaking directly to the Morning Star himself. I never heard of that particular species of demon Jin ended up fusing with, but it matches him perfectly. Brute force with some access to magic as a bonus.

That would be great if there was a part where you could control the Heroine within the first SMT title.

Well hot damn. Allen sure did clean house literally,exorcising all of those undead people instead of just his own girlfriend. But no good deed goes unpunished for sure. Right after accomplishing such a miracle,the then gets killed by Nebrios. Him and that priest.

I must say that the manner in which you had Allen die is way more impressive and astounding than in the game.

What a gigantic relief that the demons and angel under Kazuya's control accepted Yuka if only temporarily. Cool. She was given a sword.

It is a shame though in this fan fiction of your,the Mesians seem to have such a huge aversion to using guns. They are vastly ignorant how useful they can be especially if one should encounter a demon that is unaffected by physical attacks but not to gun attacks.

Too bad for both Kazuya and Yuka that they are not dealing with the Alice who was downgraded to the Undead class in SMTIV and Apocalypse. On the bright side though, there were only three other fiends one could somehow encounter in that game one for each alignment. Hopefully on this journey of theirs they are on together the two of them avoid them at all costs.

Thus the partnership between the three men now begins to show some cracks. Even though Jin or Chaos Hero could use magic,I used him as a second physical attacker as his repertoire of magic spells sucked in my honest opinion. Off he goes,departing from the group. They finally met up with Alice. It's a good thing though you never have to fight her in this video game even as an optional boss.

So much for Roppongi being an ideal heaven from the demons. Well I mean is being surrounded by the dead is not exactly what I would call a major improvement.

That was so adorable that even as a young girl, Yuka wanted nothing more than to be with her Kazuya. How utterly impressive that Yuka managed to avoid being completely brainwashed by the Mesian's teaching and not give in to their ways of life.

Well Kazuya is in fact the Messiah, but not for the Mesians.

I did not know at the time of playing the very first SMT title for the very first time on the path to chaos doing the side quest of freeing the Law Hero's girlfriend from her suffering would point you closer to the Law path hence me having to ditch some of my demons.

But yeah that sucks the Law Hero does not get to keep his girlfriend while the Hero keeps his.

Time for a boss battle with Arachne.

It is great that you skipped over the incredibly journey one has to go through just to finally encounter Arachne. Not being able to heal outside of your demons and items as well as encountering some deadly demons within the Heroine's mind and if you were not playing on an emulator then it is a true nightmare since you could only save outside of it and if you wanted out you had to backtrack all the way back to the Psychodiver.

Thankfully Kazuya didn't have to worry too much about fighting while in the Diamond Realm and especially Euno's two loyal servants. Seeing as though Jin and Allen already received their respective weapons well there this was not a whole lot to do there.

But I see that in this story you are having Stephen playing a much larger role than in the first SMT title where he did not really contribute too much to the plot as a whole.

Yet again Frost Giant evolved into some other demon I am not the least bit familiar with.

The three of them sure did receiving one hell of a rude awakening,finding out what kind of powerful demons Ozawa has partnered up with. They were that close into being sent right back to the Diamond Realm.

And caught up, wow, thirty years being gone and coming back this nightmare, what a mess...and yeah it does seem strange that a Scylla would be stronger than Thor...also oh crap Alice, devil survivor 2 gives me a fairly good idea of who Mr Red and Mr Black are and say that Allen's reaction to Alice is quite justified, that 'girl' was an overpowered monster in that game and even the weaker recruitable special fusion version in four is pretty terrifying, though I'm guessing this Alice has just ceased being human and thus is not to those levels...yet. Anyways moving on, yay he found Yuka and the demon possessing her was arrogant enough to leave and try to take him over instead...I foresee Arachne having a very bad next/final few minutes. Loving the story so far and looking forward to more.

Stephen, not Steven, he is loosely based on Stephen Hawking, hence the whole genius in a wheel chair with the text to speech device concept. Other than that love this story, I have never actually played the original SMT so the only thing that I can say I know/suspect thus far is Yuriko's identity, that said have enjoyed the story so far aside from the minor nitpick above.

hfs the smt4a megaboss dlc is canon here? time travel must be a headache to deal with.

So it sounds to me that you are switching it up by adding in evolutions to demons that previously did not have them such as the aforementioned troll. Excellent addition there. Who knows for sure what other unstable new forms Kazuya's demon allies can take in the future.

Definitely the best dream Kazuya has ever experienced thus far;having some alone time with Yuka.

I was always a bit thrown off that you had to chat with Gotou while he wore very little attire. Quite a distraction there. Well at least they managed to avoid a fight with him. What a huge relief it must be for them.

What I always find amusing is how only in this specific Shin Megami Tensei title is where you can actually use electric attacks on the god of thunder without it being nullified,drained, or even worse repelled. Well considering how early in the game you had to fight him and the lack of quick demons one can fuse or recruit who can outspeed Thor to use ice attacks to freeze lock him,you didn't really had any other option if you planned on defeating him.

I wonder if the Playstation version,the huge mistake was fixed.

Oh boy. Now comes one of my least favorite parts in the game where I died often because of how unforgiving it can be.

Thus Yuka is dead. But at least Kazuya got a final kiss from her before she was killed.

Now that is a big bombshell in regards to the truth about Jin's parents. Ah I see now. The Chaos and Law heroes had changed their names due to their different circumstances. Their original names that you had selected for them are also fine choices.

Allen got some sweet upgrades: a holy sword and the ability to use wind magic.

Leave it to the angels to try to tempt Kazuya to come join their side.

Kazuya's inner senses are tingling. Can't call it Spider Senses or I would get sued. I always wodnered if the first SMT title was to be remastered would Atlus incorporate a feature like in Enslaved where your female partner dies so do you? For better or worse they are eternally connected

If only Kazuya knew Yurikp's true identity he would realize how tough of a cookie she is.

It was quite splendid of you to go further into the backstory of both the Law and Chaos heroes. I am able to empathize more with them. Also the rescue of Yuka aka the heroine now has now emotion to it thanks to your additions and changes.