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A brief overview from the manual.
Let us begin.
Main Theme (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdFxBQQdDm4&feature=youtu.be)
Introduction+Further Part 0 content (https://youtu.be/J8Ioc_BMHgU)
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It is to be noted that only Atlus USA is saying this, Atlus Japan fully stands by this product and what it stands for.
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I cannot find the track for this temple area since it is only shown once. Just watch a bit further into that linked video.
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(https://i.imgur.com/MnuYDVI.png) Elderly voice: “Such is the law of the heavens; the law of the earth.” Not gonna transcribe everything, but all the major scenes are going to be screenshotted or transcribed at least. Zero voice acting, it was a conscious decision to have unvoiced cutscenes as far as I know.
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Worth noting here that our main character is wearing a Japanese military style school uniform from the Taisho Era (The game’s era) in Japan. Technically Raidou is a highschooler, although it is rarely ever mentioned in the game. I’m not sure he ever actually goes to school as we certainly don’t see it happen, although it hardly matters since he’s a demon crime detective.
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Anyway, we get to pick a name. I put in a period appropriate filler name in for this part 0, but all of you are going to be picking the name or else you’re stuck with Lenin the rest of the game.
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(https://i.imgur.com/MnuYDVI.png) Elderly voice: “I will determine whether or not you are worthy of the Kuzunoha name. Now demonstrate your skill as a summoner!”
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Raidou really loves his cape. I don’t blame him, he does look pretty cool with it.
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(https://i.imgur.com/MnuYDVI.png) Elderly voice: “In this place, those wishing to become Devil Summoners risk their lives to undertake the trial. You are to be commended for volunteering for this trial, Vladimir Lenin. Your spirit is exemplary, and for that I applaud you. But, not everyone passed. The equally exemplary spirits of those who have failed sleep here. Will you join the dead, Vladimir Lenin… ? Or, will you succeed and receive the honored Kuzunoha name Raidou Let us learn your fate! Begin!”
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So here we learn about the combat controls. It’s pretty simple stuff, square to attack and x to block Triangle also shoots our revolver, which is important. Raidou never learns to use magic, so he uses magical bullets to do elemental damage.
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Track: Battle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kfjqM7UqbA)
Our first enemies are the zombies, of the undead order. Undead order demons are traditionally unrecruitable in SMT and are just fodder for the main character. Raidou 1 is no exception. We can only obtain some undead (not these zombies) through fusion accidents which we’ll cover later if it ever happens. No bio from this game for me to use, but you probably know the deal with zombies. Also, I’m using the strong “group” attack here before the game tells us it exists.
We gain some yen, magnetite, regular bullets, ice bullets, and some xp from the battle, Afterwards there is another battle but it’s pretty much the same and just there to teach us that strong attacks, combos, and thrust slashes exist and we need to try them out.
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It does however level us up. There are four stats in Raidou that we can choose from as you see here. Str affects physical damage (melee and revolver), Mag affects magic damage and defense for demons, and increases demon’s stats, lowers summon cost, increases magic defense, and increases combo attack damage if Raidou levels it. Vit affect defense and HP and luck affects everything. Crits, fusions accidents, demon gifts, etc. It’s an RPG luck stat so you sort of know what you’re getting. If anyone has a build idea we can probably use it. The game is rather easy, so we should be fine unless we only boost luck or something.
(https://i.imgur.com/MnuYDVI.png)Elderly voice: “I see the basics of combat are little but child’s play to you… But only those who can control demons can call themselves Devil Summoners. How is your skill at converting demons to your own familiars?”
Demon: “What the…?”
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Demon: “You ain’t thinkin’ of making me your ally, are you?”
(https://i.imgur.com/a4t7HFt.png)Raidou: “DA TOVARISCH!”
Demon “Hyahaha! You slay me. So, you think you can use me as an ally, do you? Well, first you’ll see what I’m like as an enemy! Hyahahaha!”
So this is Ukobach, our first real, recruitable demon. He is, according to the bio given for Raidou 1 on the MegaTen wiki,
A lesser demon of Hell. Maintains the infernal boilers at Beelzebubs' command. Torments the humans in Hell by throwing burning coal onto them.
Sounds like an asshole, but hey, we’re not on the job to make friends with these little jerks, unless… well, nevermind.
Here the game also gives its tutorial on confinement, this game’s version of demon recruitment. In most SMT games you have to negotiate with demons to recruit them, in Raidou 1 we just beat the shit out of them until they’re low health and stunned and then put them in our tube. This mechanic is unique to Raidou 1; Raidou 2 uses negotiation.
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Magic bullets in action. Normal bullets exist too and do their own elemental damage (Gun damage) but we’re probably going to be using magic bullets a lot for weakness reasons. Hitting weaknesses allows us to crit and tube up demons.
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Ukobach: “Can’t take your eyes of my skills, can you? Read ‘em and weep, pal! Yeah, I think I’m about ready to throw in with a human.” He says this like he wasn’t already captured by the Kuzunohas to be exam material. Also, yeah there is button mashing involved in the tube-up, it’s not too bad though.
We walk forward a bit and encounter the next part of the test.
(https://i.imgur.com/MnuYDVI.png)Elderly voice: “Now we will see how you employ a demon in battle. This is where the real test begins. Have you lost heart?”
(https://i.imgur.com/a4t7HFt.png)Raidou: “DA TOVARISCH!”
(https://i.imgur.com/MnuYDVI.png)Elderly voice: “One cannot turn his back on the destiny of a Kuzunoha.” Kuzunoha recruitment methods are never really explored, but I get the impression some kidnapping occurs, especially for the Raidou branch. “Pull yourself together and demonstrate your skill.”
Some zombies appear, and we are told that we’re going to learn how to use demons. It’s pretty easy, just use the command menu to tell them what to do.
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Raidou is saying something in this scene, but no voice acting so I have no idea what it is. Perhaps just a prayer?
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Ukobach has become very loyal very quickly. Almost as if he was already a domesticated demon.
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The zombies are scared? Maybe? I think they might just be confused. There is more to this scene but I recommend just watching it at the 3:45 point of the part 0 video. It’d be a lot of screenshots for a very simple scene.
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Ukobach is a spell-focused demon so he mainly just blasts agi at things while we chop them up. It works pretty well.
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We level up again and Ukobach levels for the first time. You might notice that unlike Raidou he has skills, which we’ll go over later, and has a loyalty bar. Loyalty is important as we need it to be full for a demon to consent to fusion among other things we’ll get to later. First level here gives us our combo attack with Ukobach: fire shot.
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Game says some stuff, but you just need to know that combo attacks are gained after the first level, strong, and can be used by raising a demon’s morale, which goes up if you hit weaknesses and make critical attacks. Nice!
Another battle happens here but we’ll just skim over it since it’s just a less eventful version of the final tutorial battle.
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(https://i.imgur.com/MnuYDVI.png)Elderly voice: “Put all of your knowledge to use and overcome this final trial… and the title of Raidou Kuzunoha shall be yours!” Right before this the game gives us a nice review of all the mechanics so far, which we’ll just skip since I covered them.
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(https://i.imgur.com/fG7q2Zu.png)Demon: “I count over and over again, but I’m always missing one! I cannot be free until I slay one-hundred Devil Summoners! …You will die for me, won’t you?” That’s a lot of dead almost-Raidous. Here is the first example of the 3d portraits that we'll be seeing for most of the game. They've aged pretty ok considering this game is from 2006.
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Track: Old Foe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcyV9X65pdM&list=PL9mEmJrD9B_9uyxmc9QaUxjtcWoWShxa2&index=18)
There is some zombie fodder protecting her, but we wipe them out pretty swiftly, and combo attack her into nonexistence. Ahh, yes since we’ve got her name I can do her bio now.
An insect demon that takes the form of a woman with her hands tied behind her back. It arose from the hatred of a girl named Okiku, who was falsely convicted of a crime and executed.
Very tragic, shame the Kuzunoha clan has no mercy for demons.
(https://i.imgur.com/fG7q2Zu.png)Okiku-mushi: “Ah… Such a feeling… Peace at least… Thank you, Devil Summoner. You were the one.”
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“Okiku-mushi vanished” Bit of an understatement, but hey it works.
(https://i.imgur.com/MnuYDVI.png)Elderly voice: “You have overcome your trial. Return to me at once.”
Track: Overcoming the Sadness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgLl6Nx5kiU&list=PL9mEmJrD9B_9uyxmc9QaUxjtcWoWShxa2&index=24)
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(https://i.imgur.com/MnuYDVI.png)Elderly voice: “Thirteen times now has the first Raidou Kuzunoha been succeeded. From this day onward, you shall be known as Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th! You have a great responsibility, Raidou… You will go to the Capital and defend our land. With this duty comes great peril, so I will assign a partner to accompany you. Come forth, Gouto-douji.”
Voice: “… This is the 14th? Hmph, says you; the Raidou name used to command respect. (Ignore the mass of corpses of summoners who tried before Raidou.)
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(https://i.imgur.com/bOgKuTI.png)Voice: “Just call me Gouto. You’re Vladimir Lenin, right? Nice to meet ya.” He’s just busting our balls a bit, bastard cat that he is.
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Track: Herald of Yatagarasu (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUMrbDzcCng&list=PL9mEmJrD9B_9uyxmc9QaUxjtcWoWShxa2&index=13)
(https://i.imgur.com/bOgKuTI.png)Gouto: “Most people don’t pay much attention to this beat-up old shrine… But, it’s actually of great importance to the Kuzunoha clan. This is where we contact our client in the Capital.” And we thus we walk forward.
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(https://i.imgur.com/YmcpMDv.png)Mysterious woman: “You are that Devil Summoner, I presume? I am the Herald who brings tidings from Yatagarasu. I am the one who ordered the Kuzunoha clan to maintain peace in our capital city.”
(https://i.imgur.com/bOgKuTI.png)Gouto: “So, long story short, you want Raidou here to keep watch over the capital city.” It really wasn’t that long of a story but you do you cat.
(https://i.imgur.com/YmcpMDv.png)Herald of Yatagarasu: “Yes, the city is currently unstable because so many people have gathered there. The boundary separating this world from the Dark Realm is weak. Demons will start to appear. There will be serious ramifications if they should attack residents of the city. In order to prevent that from happening, I am calling on you, Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th.”
(https://i.imgur.com/YmcpMDv.png)Herald of Yatagarasu: “Demons live in the Dark Realm, which normal humans are forbidden to enter. You, however, are permitted as a Devil Summoner. You must subdue the demons before they can cause any public harm.”
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And so, we will leave off here. Put in name submissions, and the answer to this choice. We don’t get many personality defining questions in Raidou 1, so I decided to leave this one up to you guys. It won’t really affect anything, unlike other SMT games and Raidou 2.