Eirikr is Stealing Knowledge

Hey, thank you for sharing this with me. I think any creative impulse is worthwhile and worth pursuing. You never know where the ideas may lead you or what form they may take even a month from now. In the past 16 years or so I have dabbled in two major creative projects inspired by SMT. The one I made public many years ago, Wisdom Eternal, began life as a simple idea: "What if there were a Devil Summoner story set in 1970s America?" Of course, by now I have excised all the Devil Summoner-ness out of it, replacing it with my own ideas and creations (even if there are resemblances in some cases). About 3 chapters of the Wisdom Eternal narrative exist but they're kinda stinky; this is why I'm taking it upon myself to write short stories instead to hone my chops.

The other major project is one I just rediscovered a couple days ago. It is from around 2010 and heavily inspired by Strange Journey (though not in the ways you might think); more accurately, it could be said to be inspired by my experiences surrounding Strange Journey. I wrote 215 pages of it and have been thinking about it non-stop since I found it again. It's still ridiculously incomplete, unfortunately.

Point is, document/archive and ORGANIZE all of your ideas. Ideas can always be refined and the refining process can be a rewarding/satisfying endeavor all its own. The initial idea for Wisdom Eternal came about around 2012 and between then and now I have maybe hundreds of pages of notes (digital and physical) that have developed the concept far beyond its initial "Megaten fanfiction" concept.

I think the greatest use of a piece of media is not merely to consume it passively but to internalize it to grow creativity within yourself, like a seed sown within soil.

Well, if you've looked it up in kanji and kana, I unfortunately can't offer anything better. Only its profile from Megami Tensei II no Subete:

At this point in the searching process it may help to add descriptive terms from the profile in a search along with the name, which this profile might/should have. Or maybe it would have been a help like 8 or so years ago; I feel like search engines have seriously regressed in usefulness and utility the past few years.

And the wiki has this kanji rendering of its name, for the record: 丹亀

Pshhhhaaaaaaw.

If that's what you think, you better strap yourself in because it's gonna be mostly Persona from now until when Persona 6 releases (whenever that is). This has happened before! After SMT4 and Apocalypse, it was all the build up to P5. But you know what? SMT5 eventually released only a few years later (for what that's worth). If you at least look at the new Persona game as a factory for demon models that could potentially appear in SMT, it can even be kind of exciting to get Persona updates!

SMT's future is as guaranteed as it's ever been. It's a series that now crosses the million-seller mark. Just because one product sells gangbusters doesn't mean you completely ignore the other one that "only" sells extremely well.

Dx2 Paimon

Yo, this one is unexpected! Paimon is definitely one of my top demon reappearance wants, too! (Not that this will convince me to play Dx2). High quality digital Paimon art asset incoming!

A "strange obsession?" I don't think there's anything strange about it. Japan is one of the countries that successfully resisted European Christian attempts to proselytize. That's going to leave as mark. Of course, it's much more complicated than this.

This is a topic I touched on for the Fan Myths series:

Under Myth #7. Also note the bit about the cultural "booms" (ブーム; crazes/fads) Japan used to go through. As far as I understand, these booms often resulted from NHK documentaries about said subjects. Apparently Cu Chulainn/Irish myth was one such boom during the 80s, and is why Cu was even in Megami Tensei in the first place (apart from "Fairy King").

So yes, I think Japan's own history with the West, not something "strange", has affected the SMT demon roster, as evidenced from this old demon origins bar graph done circa Nocturne in 2003:

How the categories are defined is not as straightforward as you might expect, though--"Europe" is mostly stuff like Norse and Greek and Fairy demons more than Christian ones. Angels and demons tend to get slotted under "Middle East." Some examples from SMT2 Akuma Daijiten:

Oh man, Muspell. It's one of those demons that I seriously researched once upon a time and didn't come up with anything definitive. I think it's just supposed to be a generic jotun of Muspellheim, though--one of those under Surt's command. From the Prose Edda:

A "son of Muspell"? I guess that's the best bet.

I don't think a generic "Nifl" would have a reason to exist, as equivalent giants don't live in Niflheim. The other major giant race is the frost giants; so one might this guy, only icy, I guess. It's the kind of thing that may have existed if they made model edits during the PS2 era as fervently as the sprite palette swaps and edits of the SFC games. They should honestly do this for the new games! It's interesting and would be a cheap way to add needed roster variety!

The Demon Art Recolors of the Shin Megami Tensei Certain Victory Strategy Guide (真・女神転生必勝攻略法), Part 3

The last of the SMT1 Art Recolors galleries!

Part 1 and background info:

Part 2:

Part 3 contains, in order:

Pulukishi (from Ganesha)

Quetzalcoatl (from Samael)

Rangda (from Barong)

Ravana (from Mahakala)

Red Phantom (from Vampire)

Rusalka (from Undine)

Sarasvati (from Lakshmi)

Sarutahiko (from Momunofu)

Sawo Bhaku (from Lakhe)

Senko (from Tamamo)

Siren (from Harpy)

Slime (from Black Ooze)

Succubus (from Lilim)

Sylph (from Pixie)

Tam Lin (from Cu Chulainn)

Tan-ki (from Xuanwu)

Taotie (from Abaddon)

Taraka (from Yakshini)

Tezcatlipoca (from Loa)

Throne (from Angel)

Troll (from Nezha Taizi)

Virtue (from Dominion)

Watcher (from Backbeard)

Weredog (from Kobold)

Yaksha (from Rakshasa)

Yurlungur (from Serpent)

Zenki (from Shuten-douji)

Zombie Lady (from Obattarion)

Zouchouten (from Komokuten)