Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs the Soulless Army: the Recap!
While working on an app for Raidou, I came to the history section. Oh, sure, I could have made this relatively easy on myself and just done a brief summary of the game, but I ended up going a bit crazy with it, and recapped the whole damn game. So, for the hell of it, I decided that I may as well post the damn thing in my main journal on the off chance someone might find some amusement in it.
So, without further ado, I give you SMT:DS:RKvsSA: the recap!
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army
Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, upon taking on the official title of Kuzunoha, was assigned a partner named Gouto-douji; a black cat with piercing green eyes and the power of speech. This was to be his companion and mentor on the course of Raidou’s journey, and an invaluable ally. Only Devil Summoners could hear him speak; normal people would just hear meows and purrs.
One day, the Narumi Detective Agency received a call from a desperate-sounding young woman named Kaya. She begged Narumi and Raidou to come meet her at the Ushigome-gaeri Bridge. Upon doing so, she requested that they kill her. As soon as the words left her mouth, however, Raidou was promptly attacked by men in red military uniforms, and Kaya kidnapped. Clearly, there was more to this woman than met the eye. Upon further investigation, it turned out that her full name was Kaya Daidouji, daughter of the wealthy Daidouji family.
The head of the Daidouji appeared to be in poor health, and Kaya was to succeed him. Strangely, it seemed that the women of the Daidouji family were cursed to turn into demons as soon as they reached sixteen years of age. Perhaps Kaya feared this fate, and that was the reason she asked Raidou and Narumi to kill her? This would require a bit more snooping on the intrepid duo’s part. (The ‘Intrepid Duo’ being Gouto and Raidou. Narumi was off being his lazyass self elsewhere.)
After a bit of running around and getting involved in a number of vaguely-related subplots (including a naked brawl in a bath house with a Yakuza boss, finding out that Rasputin, Russia’s greatest love machine, was actually a robot, and getting a giant turtle wasted so he’d provide a ferry service), Kaya was eventually tracked down to a secluded ship-building facility. Inside, there were a shitton of obnoxious magical barriers to be knocked down and pad the length of the game, and Kaya in bondage at the end.
Er… bandages. The weird military dudes were performing some kind of perverse ritual that required her blood, and clearly, the best way to do it was to tie the girl up and soak the bandages in her blood. Oddly, this didn’t seem to have much of an adverse effect on the girl, and after a rather irksome boss battle, Munakata (the leader of the military dudes) just… let her go. Keeping the blood, of course.
Immediately jumping on the opportunity to do even less work, Narumi enlisted the girl to be his secretary, which she didn’t seem to have any objections about. She did proceed to go and give herself a terrible haircut, though, and a new outlook on life. Namely, one that involved tracking down an artifact of limitless energy. Why? Because she heard that Munakata was after it, so, clearly, they should find it first. Seriously, this plan was perfect, what could go wrong?
Except that when they did finally track it down, Kaya spouted some cryptic nonsense about the year and up and vanished right in front of Raidou and Gouto’s eyes with the artifact. Did anyone not see something like that coming a mile away? The girl was clearly not herself.
Well, with the girl they were supposed to be protecting MIA yet again, Raidou and Gouto decided to check out the bizarre-looking radio tower in Sakuradayama. Because this is 1931 and radio waves are scary, or something. Yet another obnoxious dungeon later, the duo found Munakata, who summoned an oddly phallic demon (not Mara!) to kill them before making his escape. Raidou, naturally, dispatched the demonic dong just in time for Robosputin to appear and fuck shit up… By sending Raidou hurtling through time and space... to an alternate dimension!
There, we met Raido Kuzunoha. He’s kind of like Raidou, but his face is all scarred up, and there’s one less ‘u’ in his name. Oh, and he talks. He’s kind of stuffy and a bit of a jerk, but he helped our dynamic duo get back to their own world, so he can’t be that bad. Plus, he’s got a pretty slick hat.
All seemed to be hunky dory back in the correct world, but, surprise surprise! Robosputin appeared in the Narumi Detective Agency to inform the fearsome twosome that he quit working for Munakata, and will now exist solely for comic relief. Oh, and Munakata’s super-soldier thing was done. That too.
Once again, Raidou and Gouto returned to the shipbuilding facility, running into Narumi in the process. How he got through the magic barriers and droves of demons when he’s just a normal dude is left unexplained, but obviously, it just means Narumi is a secret badass. Narumi, Raidou, and Gouto stared down Munakata as the man gave ye olde standard villain monologue about vengeance against humans and how they must be wiped out, yadda yadda. Narumi called him out on his bullshit, and the old coot revealed something. Something, frankly, quite disgusting.
As he opened his mouth, a tiny demon crawled out, identifying itself as Sukuna-Hikona, the mastermind behind the super soldier project. Munakata had been dead for quite some time, meaning the demon had been driving around his corpse like a robot suit made of meat. He then pulled up an incredibly anachronistic holographic monitor to show the trio a warship. But this wasn’t just any warship. No, it was a fucking transformer, powered by the same artifact bizarro-Kaya had been looking for before she went poof.
The “Soulless God,” as Sukuna called it, then proceeded wreck shit by leveling a district of the Capital. But it wasn’t a district Raidou could actually go to, so this wasn’t too big a deal. Still, Raidou was the protector of the Capital, so he couldn’t just stand by and let the freaky little mouth demon do what he wanted. So he killed it. Unfortunately, this did nothing to stop the giant robot wreaking havoc outside. Whoops.
Despite having access to demons and some kickass sword skills, attacking a robot the size of a skyscraper directly wasn’t going to do jack shit, so the obvious solution was to launch themselves into space to destroy the satellite/ancient artifact of doom. Or rather, launch Gouto into space. And so they did, and the satellite went boom. Unfortunately, so did Gouto, who, in his last moments, revealed to the player that he was the first Raidou Kuzunoha, and that our Raidou was the best darn Raidou he’d ever had the pleasure of mentoring. Aww. And then he died. Or did he?
In one of Raidou’s few shows of actual emotion, the young man quietly mourned the passing of his friend by covering his eyes with the brim of his hat. As the debris from the destroyed satellite rained down upon the Capital, the Soulless God finally stopped moving, and the day was saved.
Wait, weren’t we forgetting someone? Oh right, psycho-Kaya. Suddenly, a portal appeared in the river, and through it climbed another Soulless God, this one with Kaya as the pilot. Turns out, she’s possessed by a Raidou Kuzunoha from THE FUTURE who came back in time to change the past and stop Shin Megami Tensei II from happening. Wait, what?
Well, Raidou chased her into a corridor between worlds and showed her that no one messed with Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, not even a future Raidou, and gave her giant robot a thorough beatdown. Then he beat the psycho out of her, and brought the real Kaya back home, and they all lived happily ever after.
Interestingly, the future Raidou actually accomplished what he’d set out to do. The Megaten timeline split at this point, and the world of Devil Summoner directly led to Persona, while the main Megami Tensei series happened in an alternate reality.
Oh, and as it turned out, Gouto lived, and gained a shiny new crow body, so everyone’s happy, the end.
At least until the sequel, that is.
So, without further ado, I give you SMT:DS:RKvsSA: the recap!
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army
Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, upon taking on the official title of Kuzunoha, was assigned a partner named Gouto-douji; a black cat with piercing green eyes and the power of speech. This was to be his companion and mentor on the course of Raidou’s journey, and an invaluable ally. Only Devil Summoners could hear him speak; normal people would just hear meows and purrs.
One day, the Narumi Detective Agency received a call from a desperate-sounding young woman named Kaya. She begged Narumi and Raidou to come meet her at the Ushigome-gaeri Bridge. Upon doing so, she requested that they kill her. As soon as the words left her mouth, however, Raidou was promptly attacked by men in red military uniforms, and Kaya kidnapped. Clearly, there was more to this woman than met the eye. Upon further investigation, it turned out that her full name was Kaya Daidouji, daughter of the wealthy Daidouji family.
The head of the Daidouji appeared to be in poor health, and Kaya was to succeed him. Strangely, it seemed that the women of the Daidouji family were cursed to turn into demons as soon as they reached sixteen years of age. Perhaps Kaya feared this fate, and that was the reason she asked Raidou and Narumi to kill her? This would require a bit more snooping on the intrepid duo’s part. (The ‘Intrepid Duo’ being Gouto and Raidou. Narumi was off being his lazyass self elsewhere.)
After a bit of running around and getting involved in a number of vaguely-related subplots (including a naked brawl in a bath house with a Yakuza boss, finding out that Rasputin, Russia’s greatest love machine, was actually a robot, and getting a giant turtle wasted so he’d provide a ferry service), Kaya was eventually tracked down to a secluded ship-building facility. Inside, there were a shitton of obnoxious magical barriers to be knocked down and pad the length of the game, and Kaya in bondage at the end.
Er… bandages. The weird military dudes were performing some kind of perverse ritual that required her blood, and clearly, the best way to do it was to tie the girl up and soak the bandages in her blood. Oddly, this didn’t seem to have much of an adverse effect on the girl, and after a rather irksome boss battle, Munakata (the leader of the military dudes) just… let her go. Keeping the blood, of course.
Immediately jumping on the opportunity to do even less work, Narumi enlisted the girl to be his secretary, which she didn’t seem to have any objections about. She did proceed to go and give herself a terrible haircut, though, and a new outlook on life. Namely, one that involved tracking down an artifact of limitless energy. Why? Because she heard that Munakata was after it, so, clearly, they should find it first. Seriously, this plan was perfect, what could go wrong?
Except that when they did finally track it down, Kaya spouted some cryptic nonsense about the year and up and vanished right in front of Raidou and Gouto’s eyes with the artifact. Did anyone not see something like that coming a mile away? The girl was clearly not herself.
Well, with the girl they were supposed to be protecting MIA yet again, Raidou and Gouto decided to check out the bizarre-looking radio tower in Sakuradayama. Because this is 1931 and radio waves are scary, or something. Yet another obnoxious dungeon later, the duo found Munakata, who summoned an oddly phallic demon (not Mara!) to kill them before making his escape. Raidou, naturally, dispatched the demonic dong just in time for Robosputin to appear and fuck shit up… By sending Raidou hurtling through time and space... to an alternate dimension!
There, we met Raido Kuzunoha. He’s kind of like Raidou, but his face is all scarred up, and there’s one less ‘u’ in his name. Oh, and he talks. He’s kind of stuffy and a bit of a jerk, but he helped our dynamic duo get back to their own world, so he can’t be that bad. Plus, he’s got a pretty slick hat.
All seemed to be hunky dory back in the correct world, but, surprise surprise! Robosputin appeared in the Narumi Detective Agency to inform the fearsome twosome that he quit working for Munakata, and will now exist solely for comic relief. Oh, and Munakata’s super-soldier thing was done. That too.
Once again, Raidou and Gouto returned to the shipbuilding facility, running into Narumi in the process. How he got through the magic barriers and droves of demons when he’s just a normal dude is left unexplained, but obviously, it just means Narumi is a secret badass. Narumi, Raidou, and Gouto stared down Munakata as the man gave ye olde standard villain monologue about vengeance against humans and how they must be wiped out, yadda yadda. Narumi called him out on his bullshit, and the old coot revealed something. Something, frankly, quite disgusting.
As he opened his mouth, a tiny demon crawled out, identifying itself as Sukuna-Hikona, the mastermind behind the super soldier project. Munakata had been dead for quite some time, meaning the demon had been driving around his corpse like a robot suit made of meat. He then pulled up an incredibly anachronistic holographic monitor to show the trio a warship. But this wasn’t just any warship. No, it was a fucking transformer, powered by the same artifact bizarro-Kaya had been looking for before she went poof.
The “Soulless God,” as Sukuna called it, then proceeded wreck shit by leveling a district of the Capital. But it wasn’t a district Raidou could actually go to, so this wasn’t too big a deal. Still, Raidou was the protector of the Capital, so he couldn’t just stand by and let the freaky little mouth demon do what he wanted. So he killed it. Unfortunately, this did nothing to stop the giant robot wreaking havoc outside. Whoops.
Despite having access to demons and some kickass sword skills, attacking a robot the size of a skyscraper directly wasn’t going to do jack shit, so the obvious solution was to launch themselves into space to destroy the satellite/ancient artifact of doom. Or rather, launch Gouto into space. And so they did, and the satellite went boom. Unfortunately, so did Gouto, who, in his last moments, revealed to the player that he was the first Raidou Kuzunoha, and that our Raidou was the best darn Raidou he’d ever had the pleasure of mentoring. Aww. And then he died. Or did he?
In one of Raidou’s few shows of actual emotion, the young man quietly mourned the passing of his friend by covering his eyes with the brim of his hat. As the debris from the destroyed satellite rained down upon the Capital, the Soulless God finally stopped moving, and the day was saved.
Wait, weren’t we forgetting someone? Oh right, psycho-Kaya. Suddenly, a portal appeared in the river, and through it climbed another Soulless God, this one with Kaya as the pilot. Turns out, she’s possessed by a Raidou Kuzunoha from THE FUTURE who came back in time to change the past and stop Shin Megami Tensei II from happening. Wait, what?
Well, Raidou chased her into a corridor between worlds and showed her that no one messed with Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, not even a future Raidou, and gave her giant robot a thorough beatdown. Then he beat the psycho out of her, and brought the real Kaya back home, and they all lived happily ever after.
Interestingly, the future Raidou actually accomplished what he’d set out to do. The Megaten timeline split at this point, and the world of Devil Summoner directly led to Persona, while the main Megami Tensei series happened in an alternate reality.
Oh, and as it turned out, Gouto lived, and gained a shiny new crow body, so everyone’s happy, the end.
At least until the sequel, that is.